NORTHERN IRELAND

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Theresa Villiers: These are set out on page 37 of my Department's published accounts, Northern Ireland Office Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211915/NIO_Annual_Report___Annual_Accounts_2012-13.pdf

Police Deaths on Duty

William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what representations she has made to the government of the Irish Republic on the publication of the Smithwick report.

Theresa Villiers: I have regular discussions with my Irish counterparts on all areas of mutual interest. I have discussed the Smithwick report and its findings with the Tánaiste in recent days, and my Department will continue to work closely with the Irish Government on the findings of the report.

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many dissident republicans have been (a) arrested and (b) convicted for terrorist acts in each of the last 12 months.

Theresa Villiers: The following tables show the most up to date figures for arrests made under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and for convictions of an offence under terrorism legislation. These data refer to the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available. It is not possible to identify those arrested or convicted as ‘dissident republicans’.
	
		
			 Date Number of arrests under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 
			 2012  
			 November 20 
			 December 12 
			   
			 2013  
			 January 4 
			 February 10 
			 March 9 
			 April 19 
			 May 6 
		
	
	
		
			 June 14 
			 July 6 
			 August 8 
			 September 6 
			 October 19 
			 Total 133 
		
	
	
		
			 Date Number of persons convicted of an offence under terrorism legislation 
			 2012  
			 December 1 
			   
			 2013  
			 January 1 
			 February 2 
			 March 2 
			 April 3 
			 May 1 
			 June 4 
			 July 0 
			 August 0 
			 September 2 
			 October 0 
			 November 0 
			 Total 16

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many acts of terrorism linked to Irish republican groups have been reported in each of the last 12 months.

Theresa Villiers: The following table outlines the number of national security attacks which have taken place in each of the last 12 months:
	
		
			  Number 
			 January 3 
			 February 0 
			 March 3 
			 April 0 
			 May 2 
			 June 0 
			 July 2 
			 August 2 
			 September 1 
			 October 9 
			 November 3 
			 December (as at 9 December) 2 
			 Total 27

WALES

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

David Jones: Since the coalition formed in 2010, ministerial salaries within the Wales Office have not increased. The amount spent on ministerial salaries is published in the Wales Office Annual Report and Accounts. Figures for the last financial year 2012-13 can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wales-office-annual-report-published

INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENTARY STANDARDS AUTHORITY COMMITTEE

Members: Pay

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, if he will publish any briefing notes given to the media in (a) advance of and (b) response to enquiries about the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority's decision on hon. Members' future salaries.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about briefing notes for the media provided with respect of the recent determination of MPs' pay.
	No such briefing notes were prepared or given.

Members: Pay

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, when the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Board made the decision on hon. Members' future salaries.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about the determination of MPs' pay.
	The determination on MPs' pay was made at the meeting of the Board on 5 December 2013.

Members: Pay

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which media (a) were contacted by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) and (b) contacted IPSA in the week commencing Monday 2 November on IPSA's decision on hon. Members' future salaries.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, dated December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about contact between IPSA and the media.
	We do not keep a record of our contact with media organisations.

Members: Pay

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, if the Chairman and Chief Executive will prepare a briefing note for hon. Members explaining the decision of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Board on hon. Members' future salaries.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, dated December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about hon. Members' future salaries.
	We have no plans to produce a briefing note for MPs in addition to my letter to all MPs of 12 December 2013 and our report, published the same day. The background to our determination and the results of our consultation can be found in that report.
	Copies of the report are available in the Vote Office and on our website:
	www.parliamentarystandards.org.uk

Members: Pay

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, if the Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) will write personally to all members of the public who communicate with hon. Members on IPSA's recent decision on hon. Members' salaries; and if he will issue an invitation to all hon. Members to forward all such communications to him.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, dated December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about correspondence relating to its recent determination on MPs' pay.
	We will, of course, respond to any letters or e-mails sent direct to IPSA by members of the public about this matter. We have no plans to write personally to all of those who raise this issue with hon. Members or to invite hon. Members to forward any such correspondence to us.

Members: Pay

Ian Lucas: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how much in total was spent in salary costs to all hon. Members for performance of their parliamentary duties in the last year for which figures are available.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, December 2013
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about total expenditure on MPs' salaries.
	The cost of MPs' salaries in 2012/13, as published in our Annual Report and Accounts 2012-2013, was £43.7m exclusive of employers' national insurance and pension contributions.

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Leader of the House how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Andrew Lansley: Information about ministerial salaries is in the public domain in the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2011. This is available at:
	http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2011/9780111509258/schedule/1

PRIME MINISTER

Food Banks

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Prime Minister which food banks he has visited since May 2010.

David Cameron: I last visited a local food bank on 15 February 2013.

TRANSPORT

A4440

Robin Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received on doubling the A4440 Southern Link Road.

Robert Goodwill: I have received no recent representations on this proposed scheme.
	As you are aware, it was announced in the spending review earlier this year that a total of £2 billion per annum would now be committed to the Local Growth Fund over the six years from 2015-16 and be available to LEPs through 'Growth Deals'. These will be negotiated between Government and local areas through strategic economic plans (SEPs) that are due to be submitted to Government in March 14. Worcestershire local enterprise partnership may wish to include the dualling of the A4440 Southern Link Road in their SEP, if it is seen as key to economic growth in the area.

Biofuels: EU Action

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 16 October 2013, Official Report, column 734, what his policy is on the proposed five per cent cap on land-based biofuels in the European Union Council negotiations on the EU Commission’s proposed reform of EU-biofuel policy.

Robert Goodwill: We continue to believe that a 5% cap is required on the contribution made by biofuels from food crops to the renewable energy directive 2020 transport target in order to have a meaningful impact on indirect land use change.
	Unfortunately the Council was not able to reach an agreed position in the vote on 12 December. But the UK will continue to press for effective action, including with the incoming Greek presidency.

Cycling: Greater London

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans his Department has to improve road safety for cyclists in Greater London.

Robert Goodwill: In London, the Department for Transport devolves funding decisions to Transport for London (TfL) via the GLA Transport Grant—£1.988 billion this year. This supports TfL's infrastructure investment programme, including the delivery of the Mayor's Vision for Cycling in London.
	On 13 December the Department announced a further initiative to help cyclists in London. New low-level traffic lights designed for cyclists have been authorised for use following safety trials. The clearance means that TfL can now install the lights at Bow Roundabout—the first time the lights have been used in the UK. Initially the system will be piloted at Bow but the Department is working with TfL to extend it to a further 11 sites in London. The lights will give cyclists improved, clearer signals to ensure they have the information they need at the junction. In addition we are working with TfL on trialling innovative schemes to improve cycle safety at junctions.
	Furthermore, the Department has made it considerably easier for local authorities to implement 20 mph zones, ‘Trixi’ mirrors, new designs of Advanced Stop Lines and other highway measures to support cycle safety.
	We also continue to work with the haulage industry to drive up vehicle standards and awareness of vulnerable road users.

Dartford-Thurrock Crossing

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many times tolls have been suspended on the Lower Thames Crossing since October 2011.

Robert Goodwill: The charges have been suspended on the Lower Thames Crossing on five separate occasions since October 2011.

Dartford-Thurrock Crossing

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many vehicles have used the Lower Thames Crossing while tolls were suspended since October 2011; and what estimate he has made of the value of the fees foregone.

Robert Goodwill: Since October 2011, a total of 75,107 vehicles used the Lower Thames Crossing while charges were suspended. It is estimated that the revenue forgone in suspending the charges is £134,500.

Electric Vehicles

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the rate of progress of creation of alternative fuels infrastructure for the recharging of electric vehicles in the UK.

Robert Goodwill: On 4 September the Government published its ultra low emission vehicle (ULEV) strategy Driving the Future Today. This includes a stock take of UK recharging infrastructure and identifies shaping the necessary infrastructure as a key Government action in ensuring the growth of the ULEV market.
	Through the Plugged-In Places Programme and national chargepoint grant schemes we have helped fund the installation of over 8,600 chargepoints, alongside an estimated 5,000 chargepoints the private sector have installed in the UK.
	As part of the call for evidence, launched on 7 November, we also ask specific questions on what more needs to be done to ensure the UK has the appropriate level of recharging infrastructure to meet the future requirements of ULEV drivers.

Network Rail

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what length of delays on the rail network were attributable to Network Rail maintenance failures in the last year for which data are available.

Stephen Hammond: The Department does not hold the information requested. This is a matter for Network Rail, the owner and operator of the national network, and the independent Office of Rail Regulation.
	The Office of Rail Regulation advises that asset failures are not easily attributable to maintenance and/or renewal failures. It publishes data on the length of delays attributable to failures by asset type, and this is available on its data portal:
	http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5d16e4e9-3b3f-4144-ba91-78f52ca3ce52
	Network Rail is required to manage its network to deliver the level of overall performance specified by the Office of Rail Regulation. Where Network Rail does not deliver its required outputs, the regulator makes adjustments to ensure that the company does not benefit from any associated reduced expenditure and can also take enforcement action.

Oxford-Hereford Railway Line

Robin Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received on steps to decrease train times on the North Cotswold line.

Stephen Hammond: The only recent representations received on steps to decrease train times on the North Cotswold line have come from my hon. Friends the Members for Worcester (Mr Walker) and Mid Worcestershire (Peter Luff).
	The Government has provided £300 million funding to Network Rail for passenger journey improvements across the network for the period from 2014 to 2019.

Pedestrian Crossings

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  if he will estimate the number of new (a) pelican crossings and (b) puffin crossings installed on roads in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011 and (iii) 2012;
	(2)  which local authorities installed new pelican crossings in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012;
	(3)  if he will list types of pedestrian crossing in order of their safety performance.

Robert Goodwill: The Department for Transport does not hold information on numbers of Pelican and Puffin crossings installed by local authorities during the period 2010-12 or which local authorities installed those crossings.
	Decisions on what type of crossing to provide are for local traffic authorities, taking into account local factors such as road layout, traffic speed and volume, and pedestrian flow. Many factors contribute to the safety record of a crossing and for this reason it is not possible to provide a definitive ranking of crossing types in terms of safety.
	However, research commissioned by the DFT showed that Pelican crossings converted to Puffin crossings showed an average reduction in accidents of 17%. The report is available to download from:
	www.trl.co.uk/online_store/reports_publications/trl_reports/cat_traffic_engineering/report_puffin_pedestrian_crossing_accident_study.htm
	The Department gives advice on assessing and designing pedestrian crossings in two Local Transport Notes (LTNs), LTN 1/95: The Assessment of Pedestrian Crossings and LTN 2/95: The Design of Pedestrian Crossings. These are available to download from:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-transport-notes

Railway Stations: Worcestershire

Robin Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received on a new Worcestershire Parkway station.

Stephen Hammond: Worcester county council advised me earlier this year it is reviewing the business case for a new Worcester Parkway station. I have asked my rail strategy officials to provide the necessary assistance.

Railways: North West

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail on increasing capacity east of Broadbottom on the Manchester to Glossop rail line.

Stephen Hammond: I have had no recent discussions with Network Rail on this subject. Network Rail is currently undertaking a Long Term Planning Process in consultation with industry, local and other stakeholders to identify priorities for future development of the rail network following the 2014-19 Control Period.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Animal Experiments

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment her Department has made of the independent investigation by the Medical Research Council into vivisection practices at Imperial College, London; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker: I welcome the independent investigation into animal research at Imperial College London. I will be asking the Home Office advisory body, the Animals in Science Committee, to review the report alongside the Home Office's report into the allegations of non-compliance. I will publish the Committee's findings in the New Year.

Animal Experiments

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the procedures used on animals at Imperial College London; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker: I welcome the independent investigation into animal research at Imperial College London. I will be asking the Home Office advisory body, the Animals in Science Committee, to review the report alongside the Home Office's report into the allegations of non-compliance. I will publish the Committee's findings in the new year.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Ashfield

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in Ashfield were prosecuted for breaches of anti-social behaviour orders in (a) 2009, (b) 2010, (c) 2011, (d) 2012 and (e) 2013 to date.

Norman Baker: Information on proceedings for the offence of breach of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO), which is collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice and held on the Court Proceedings Database, does not include the location in which the ASBO recipient resides. This detailed information is only held by courts on individual case files and is not reported to the Ministry of Justice.
	It is therefore not possible to determine from centrally held information how many people in Ashfield have been proceeded against for breach of an ASBO.

Crime: Staffordshire

Aidan Burley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of trends in the level of crime in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker: The following table shows the number of crimes recorded by the police in Cannock Chase and Staffordshire in each of the last five years. The data show that police recorded crime has fallen consistently over that period. At the same time the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on victims' experiences rather than police figures, shows that crime has more than halved since 1995, and is now at the lowest level since the survey began in 1981.
	
		
			 Total number of offences recorded by the police (excluding fraud) 
			 Number 
			  Cannock Chase Community Safety Partnership Staffordshire police force area 
			 Year to June 2009 80,760 6,910 
			 Year to June 2010 72,308 6,603 
			 Year to June 2011 66,250 6,087 
			 Year to June 2012 61,879 5,430 
			 Year to June 2013 57,493 4,807 
			    
			 % change year to June 2009 to year to June 2013 -29 -30 
			 Note: Due to the staggered move of recording fraud offences by forces to Action Fraud, crime rates are shown excluding fraud offences to allow for consistent comparisons between years.

Domestic Violence

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what services providing independent domestic violence advisers received Government funding in each year since 2010; and how much each service received (a) nationally and (b) in each region in each year.

Norman Baker: holding answer 12 December 2013
	The coalition Government's Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan sets out the actions we are taking to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls. This includes ring-fencing funding of nearly £40 million until 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence services, which includes funding for 144 independent domestic violence advisers every year from 2011-12 to 2014-15.
	Total central Government funding given for these advisers in 2011-12 was £2,550,000 and in 2012-13 was £2,530,000. I will place a list of these advisers in the House Library, and they can also be found at:
	www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-for-multi-agency-risk-assessment-co-ordinators-and-independent-domestic-violence-advisers

Drugs: Postal Services

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what controls her Department has put in place to intercept the delivery of substances controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act at (a) postal sorting offices and (b) distribution centres in the UK.

Norman Baker: holding answer 16 December 2013
	: The National Crime Agency works with Border Force and other law enforcement agencies to detect illicit goods, including substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and to prosecute those responsible for the importation or distribution of these controlled substances in the UK. The specific controls put in place are a matter for law enforcement, and in any case it would not be sensible to itemise these.
	In addition the Home Office recently worked with UK law enforcement on a concerted programme of enforcement activity on new psychoactive substances, many of which are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. This activity included enhanced resources for detecting illicit goods such as controlled drugs. The Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology supported this activity with real-time forensic analysis of suspect seizures.

Homicide: Older People

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people aged over 65 have been murdered in each year since 2010; and how many people have been (a) charged with and (b) convicted of such murders to date.

Norman Baker: The requested number of homicide victims aged over 65 in England and Wales, and the number of people charged and convicted for these offences is given in the following table.
	Homicide statistics for 2012/13 are due to be published in February 2014, and therefore the data provided are for the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12.
	The circumstances surrounding a homicide can be complex and it can take time for cases to pass through the criminal justice system. Due to this, there are a number of homicide cases where criminal proceedings for the relevant year have yet to reach a conclusion.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of homicide victims aged 65 and over, number of suspects charged with, and number of suspects convicted of, homicide of a person aged 65 and over, 2010-11 to 2011-12 in England and Wales 
			  Number 
			  2010-11 2011-12 
			 Victims aged over 65 66 52 
			 Suspects charged with homicide of a person aged over 65 61 60 
			 Suspects convicted of homicide of a person aged over 651 24 18 
			 1 The circumstances surrounding a homicide can be complex and it can take time for cases to pass through the criminal justice system. As a result the figures for convicted suspects will increase as the cases pass through the criminal justice system. Source: Homicide Index, Home Office

Human Trafficking: Children

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 573W, on human trafficking: children, whether her Department plans to include mandatory human trafficking assessments as part of the duties of the Criminal Casework PORT officers in the forthcoming guidance on Managing Foreign National Offenders under 18 years; and whether those officers will be first responders in the National Referral Mechanism system.

James Brokenshire: The Criminal Casework Prisons, Operations and Removals Team Officers (PORT) are Immigration Enforcement Teams on site at various prisons across the UK. Their primary role is to ensure the timely progression of deportation/removal of foreign national offenders by interviewing offenders/serving paperwork.
	The Home Office does not plan to include mandatory modern slavery assessments as part of the duties of the Criminal Casework PORT officers. The PORT Team has eight specially trained officers to interview children, based in eight key prisons across the country. Interviewing officers are First Responders who can and do make referrals to the National Referral Mechanism system, where a suspect is a victim of modern slavery.
	We recognise there are concerns regarding the prosecution of victims of modern slavery. The Director of Public Prosecutions will issue revised guidance to ensure that prosecutors understand this issue, and when it is not in the public interest they will not proceed with a case. We will continue to reflect on whether there is anything further that is needed to prevent modern slavery victims being prosecuted where it is clearly not right to do so.

Licensing Laws

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many early morning restriction orders have been imposed since their introduction.

Norman Baker: No licensing authority has yet introduced an early morning alcohol restriction order. A number of areas have been actively considering whether the measure could be of benefit to them. I have recently written to all police and crime commissioners to draw to their attention the benefits the introduction of early morning restriction orders can bring.

Licensing Laws

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many late night levies have been imposed since their introduction.

Norman Baker: One late night levy has been introduced in Newcastle on 1 November 2013. A number of other areas have also been actively considering whether the measure could be of benefit to them. I have recently written to all Police and Crime Commissioners to draw to their attention the benefits the introduction of a late night levy can bring.

Mephedrone

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the trend has been of the number of people using mephedrone since it was made a controlled drug in 2010.

Norman Baker: The 2012-13 Crime Survey for England and Wales showed a drop in the proportion of people aged 16 to 59 taking mephedrone. In 2012-13, the figure was 0.5%. This compares with 1.1% in 2011-12 and 1.4% in the 2010-11 survey, when the questions were first asked.

Missing People

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the speed and methods by which missing people are traced.

Norman Baker: Police forces individually record information about missing persons incidents using guidance published by the National Policing Lead. These records are not held centrally.
	The National Crime Agency's Missing Persons Bureau publish an annual report on missing persons data. Their most recent statistical analysis was released in September which covered the 2011/2012 recording year. Data was provided by four police forces in relation to the time in which missing people were found and indicates that the majority (70%) of missing people return or are located within 16 hours with only 2% outstanding for longer than a week.
	Information on methods of tracing missing persons is not held centrally. However the National Crime Agency Missing Persons Bureau report states, where a person was found, it was the police who located the missing person in the majority of cases.
	Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary will be conducting an all forces inspection focusing on missing children in 2014.

Missing People

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people of each age group and gender are currently registered as missing.

Norman Baker: It is the responsibility of each individual police force to record their missing persons incidents. This information is not available centrally. Figures provided by police forces indicate that overall around 313,000 missing person's incidents were recorded in 2011-12, in England, Wales and Scotland.

Motorway Service Areas: Alcoholic Drinks

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on the sale of alcohol at Government-controlled motorway service areas.

Norman Baker: holding answer 16 December 2013
	The law currently bans the sale of alcohol at these service areas. The Government included motorway service areas as part of the public consultation on the Alcohol Strategy in 2012-13. The Government's response to this consultation was published in July 2013 and stated that this issue would be considered further. A decision will be made in due course.

National Crime Agency: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has made an assessment of the specialist capabilities of the National Crime Agency currently used by Police Scotland.

James Brokenshire: The National Crime Agency provides a number of national specialist and operational capabilities that are available on request, as the operational need arises, from police and law enforcement partners across the UK, including Police Scotland.

Offences against Children

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what reviews have been carried out relating to child abuse involving employees or former employees of her Department;
	(2)  what reviews are ongoing within her Department relating to historic cases of child sexual exploitation; and when she expects to report the results of these reviews.

Norman Baker: holding answer 12 December 2013
	A review into what information the Department had received between 1979 and 1999 in respect of child sexual abuse and whether any member of Home Office staff was alleged or found to be involved or implicated in organised child abuse, and what action was taken, was commissioned by the Permanent Secretary earlier this year. A copy of the executive summary of the interim and final reports, together with the terms of reference, was published on 1 August 2013. Copies of all of these documents can be found via the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-home-office-files-to-identify-information-about-organised-child-sex-abuse-cr27731
	There are currently no other historic child sexual exploitation reviews ongoing in the Department. There is, however, ongoing work across the Department in reviewing Home Office policies in delivering child protection within the Department and the police as the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), set out to the House in her written ministerial statement of 12 March 2013, columns 7-8WS.
	More widely, the Home Office is leading work across Government to tackle sexual violence against children and vulnerable people, learning the lessons from both historic, and current day cases of child sexual exploitation. The National Group published its first progress report and action plan in July 2013 and will publish a revised strategic action plan in spring 2014.

Refuges: Females

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times she has visited a women's refuge since her appointment.

Norman Baker: holding answer 2 December 2013
	It is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings or visits on an ongoing basis. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website:
	http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office
	However Ministers, including the Home Secretary and I, regularly visit refuges and the Home Office is working closely with the sector on the provision of sustainable support services.
	The Home Office recently hosted two events to highlight the importance of commissioning services for victims of domestic and sexual violence. However, decisions about provision of local services for victims of domestic violence are a local matter and it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to identify any gaps in service provision and put appropriate solutions in place.

Sovereignty: Scotland

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations her Department has received from the Scottish Government in the last 12 months on the proposed continued membership of the Common Travel Area for residents of an independent Scotland, as outlined in Scotland's Future: Your Guide to An Independent Scotland.

Mark Harper: The Home Office has not received any representations from the Scottish Government in the last 12 months on the proposed continued membership of the Common Travel Area for residents of an independent Scotland.

Travellers: Human Rights

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she last met her European counterparts to discuss the human rights situation of the Roma in the EU.

Damian Green: holding answer 12 December 2013
	Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website:
	http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Crown Prosecution Service

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how many local Crown Prosecution Service offices were located in the same building as the police force for that area in each of the last 10 years.

Oliver Heald: According to the records held centrally, since January 2002 39 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) offices have been located in the same building as the police. The central records cover buildings where the CPS has entered into a formal agreement with the police to share space or buildings where the CPS holds a commercial lease and the building is also occupied by the police. The following table details the number of such buildings by CPS Area and year since 2002.
	In London CPS staff were collocated with Metropolitan police force staff in 26 police stations. This arrangement was part of the joint Investigation and Prosecution Team (IPT) model that operated between 2008 and 2012.
	In addition there have been a number of local less formal agreements between police forces and CPS Areas for some police or CPS staff to share space held by either the police or the CPS. Central records of such agreements are not held and these arrangements are therefore excluded from this response. To obtain this information would require all CPS Area's to review local records over the last 10 years and would incur disproportionate costs.
	
		
			 CPS Area Site Duration 
			 London 26 sites All ended in 2012. Start dates varied. 
			 South East Medway PS 2009-12 
			  Chichester PS 2013-(two staff only) 
			 Wessex Basingstoke 2001-13 
			  Isle of Wight 2001-13 
			  Portswood 2001-10 
			 South West Argal House Exeter 2006-14 
			  Shuttern Taunton 2005-11 
			 North West Bolton, Ashton and Wigan Police Stations 2005-11 
			   (2013 Bolton) 
			 Thames Valley and Chilterns Luton Police Station 2011-13 
			 Yorkshire and Humberside Athena House, York 2005-13 
			 Wales Swansea Police Station 2012-ongoing

Crown Prosecution Service

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General if he will list (a) the Crown Prosecution Service offices in England and Wales that have closed since 2010, (b) the function of each such office and (c) the number of (i) voluntary and (ii) compulsory redundancies at each such office.

Oliver Heald: Since January 2010 the CPS has closed 40 offices where a formal lease or licence to occupy space was held. Nine new offices have opened. Local arrangements with courts and police to share space which ended during the same period are not included and to capture this information would incur disproportionate costs.
	The CPS has not operated any voluntary redundancy schemes. It has however operated a number of Voluntary Early Release (VER) schemes in accordance with the Civil Service Compensation scheme arrangements. The following table summarises the offices that have closed, the function(s) that were carried out at each location and the number of exits under VER schemes since January 2010 at each such office. In accordance with departmental policy there have been no compulsory redundancies.
	
		
			 Year closed Office Function1 Number of staff leaving under VER schemes since 2010 
			 2010 Harrow Operational 9 
			  Lancaster Operational 0 
			  London, Ludgate Hill EC4 Headquarters and Operational 0 
			  Stratford, London Operational 0 
			  Workington Operational 0 
			 2011 Birkenhead Operational 0 
			  Blackpool Operational 0 
			  Eastbourne Operational 0 
			  Harrogate Operational 0 
			  New Kings Beam House, London, SE1 Administration and Operational 22 
			  Northampton (Beaumont House) Operational 7 
			  Rochdale Operational 2 
			  Salford Operational 0 
			  Truro Operational 5 
			  Wolverhampton Operational 5 
			 2012 Coventry Operational 22 
			  Grimsby Operational 14 
			  Leamington Spa Operational 12 
			  Mansfield Operational 4 
			  Stafford Operational 18 
			  Swansea Operational 10 
			 2013 Aylesbury Operational 15 
			  Bournemouth Operational 19 
			  Bradford Operational 4 
			  Bristol Operational 18 
			  Chester Operational 6 
			  Chichester Operational 9 
			  Crosby Headquarters and Operational 6 
			  Cwmbran Operational 23 
			  Derby Operational 24 
			  Durham Operational 19 
			  Liverpool Operational 59 
			  Luton Operational 5 
			  Merthyr Tydfil Operational 5 
			  Newtown Operational 4 
			  Northampton (Riverside House) Operational 20 
			  Shrewsbury Operational 21 
			  Warrington Operational 16 
			  York (Athena House) Operational 6 
			  York (United House) Headquarters and Operational 27 
			 1 “Operational” reflects front line prosecutorial activity. “Admin” reflects central or local corporate functions such as Human Resources or Finance.

Witnesses

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how much the Crown Prosecution Service has spent on administering witness care units in each of the last seven years.

Oliver Heald: The total budget allocated by the CPS for the administration of Witness Care Units (WCUs), in each of the last seven years, has been:
	
		
			  £ 
			 2007-08 5,500,000 
			 2008-09 5,500,000 
			 2009-10 5,500,000 
			 2010-11 5,500,000 
			 2011-12 4,000,000 
			 2012-13 4,000,000 
			 2013-14 4,000,000 
		
	
	In each of the last seven years the CPS has allocated £2.5 million of its voted expenditure to WCUs. The remainder of the total CPS allocation in each year was funded by income from the Ministry of Justice, via the Victims Surcharge.

DEFENCE

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles were carried out by British armed forces in (a) Afghanistan and (b) Pakistan in the last three years.

Philip Dunne: Reaper is the UK's only armed remotely piloted aircraft system and is operated under the legal authority of a UN Security Council Resolution and in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. A total of 332 weapons were released by UK Reaper between 1 December 2010 and 30 November 2013 (inclusive) in Afghanistan. The UK Rules of Engagement (RoE) and policy governing the use of Reaper is the same as that which is used for conventionally piloted combat aircraft.
	UK Reapers only operate in support of coalition ground forces in Afghanistan.

Chief of Defence Materiel

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost to the public purse has been of the (a) salary, (b) hotel costs, (c) air fares, (d) rail fares, (e) taxi fares, (f) use of official car and driver and (g) any other benefits-in-kind accrued by the Chief of Defence Materiel since his appointment on 4 January 2011.

Philip Hammond: holding answer 16 December 2013
	Salary details of senior Ministry of Defence officials, including the Chief of Defence Materiel (CDM), are published online at:
	http://data.gov.uk/dataset/organogram-and-staff-pay-data-for-ministry-of-defence-2013
	Quarterly expenses data for all 3 and 4 star staff, including CDM, is published online at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/senior-staff-business-expenses

Chief of Defence Materiel

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the details were of each official overseas trip undertaken by the Chief of Defence Materiel since his appointment on 4 January 2011; and what the cost of each such trip was.

Philip Hammond: holding answer 16 December 2013
	Details of all 3 and 4 star official visits, including those made by the Chief of Defence Materiel (CDM), are published online as part of the quarterly expenses data.
	Information covering the period from CDM's appointment in January 2011 to March 2012 is available at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/senior-staff-business-expenses
	Details of official overseas visits since March 2012 until the end of September 2013 are summarised in the following table:
	
		
			 Dates Destination Purpose Total cost (£) 
			 7-8 May 2012 Hartford, USA Official visit £3,677 
			 3 September 2012 Cologne, Germany Official visit £378 
			 24 October 2012 Toulouse, France Official meetings £620 
			 6 November 2012 Brussels, Belgium Official meetings £199 
			 2 December 2012 Paris, France Official meetings £168 
			 16-17 April 2013 Brussels, Belgium Official meetings £423 
			 7-9 May 2013 Washington, USA Official meetings £4,190 
			 29-30 May 2013 Pisa, Italy Official meetings £222 
			 13 June 2013 Paris, France Official meetings £101 
			 15 July 2013 France Official meetings £215 
			 29 July-1 August 2013 USA Official meetings £4,264

Cybercrime

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people he plans to recruit to the new cyber defence unit; and over what period of time such recruitment will take place.

Mark Francois: The Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), announced on 29 September 2013 that recruiting for the Joint Cyber Unit (Reserve) would commence in October 2013. I can confirm that recruitment is well under way for this new unit and the large response it has elicited is extremely heartening. The details of their numbers, ranks and positions, must be withheld for the purpose of safeguarding national security, but I can confirm that the eventual strength of the Joint Cyber Reserve will number in the hundreds of personnel. I would also stress that cyber security is the responsibility of all personnel within the Ministry of Defence, and we are taking action to mainstream it into the way we conduct operations and business.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when consultations between (a) him, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department and trades unions regarding the implementation of the Defence Equipment and Support plus proposals are planned to take place.

Philip Dunne: The Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), officials and I have met regularly with the trade unions on various topics including the reform of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S).
	Officials will shortly be meeting with the trade unions to agree the arrangements for formal consultation on the practicalities for implementation of the future DE&S model, in accordance with Ministry of Defence policy and legal obligations.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have met their counterparts in the Cabinet Office and the Treasury on the liberalisation of pay and conditions as part of his Defence Equipment and Support plus proposals in each of the last six months.

Philip Dunne: The Secretary of State for Defence, my right, hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), officials and I meet regularly with our counterparts in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury on a range of issues, including reform of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S).

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what employment changes will apply to (a) existing Defence Equipment and Support (DE & S) personnel and (b) staff brought into DE and S under his DE & S plus model; and whether any such staff will receive remuneration higher than that of the Prime Minister under these proposals;
	(2)  whether the introduction of a new human resources function within the Defence Equipment and Support plus model will include powers of hiring and firing beyond those currently used within the civil service.

Philip Dunne: A key feature of the new organisation is the freedom around how it recruits, retains, rewards and manages both existing and new staff, along more commercial lines. The organisation will be able to employ staff at market rates and will be able to recruit new staff through an accelerated process that does not require us to follow the usual civil service recruitment process.
	The realities of departmental budgets remain. The new organisation will need to live within its budget but the difference will be in allowing it to make business decisions about how that budget is best used to deliver to the armed services and for the taxpayer. We will discuss with colleagues in other Government Departments how those freedoms are applied, including in terms of salaries.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what work his Department will undertake on the development of the Defence Equipment and Support plus financial control and management systems.

Philip Dunne: Under the new organisation we will continue to build on the work that is currently under way within Defence Equipment and Support to improve its financial control and management information systems. This work is critical not only to improve the new organisation's performance, but also to provide a more robust baseline that would allow us more confidently to re-test the market's appetite to bid for a risk-taking Government Owned Contractor Operated model in the future.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much will be saved from his Department's annual budget as a result of the Defence Equipment and Support plus proposals;

Philip Dunne: The new organisation will drive significant incremental improvements in the operation of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S). It is too early to determine the exact level of financial savings of the new organisation. However, building on the DE&S+ proposition, we are confident that substantial savings can be made over time which will benefit the armed forces and the taxpayer.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  under what criteria the new Chief Executive of Defence Equipment and Support was appointed;
	(2)  when the Chief of Defence Materiel will become Chief Executive of Defence Equipment and Support plus; and whether his contract of employment has yet been signed.

Philip Dunne: As Chief of Defence Materiel, Bernard Gray is already Chief Executive of DE&S and, as the Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), announced on 10 December 2013, Official Report, columns 146-148, Bernard Gray has agreed to continue to lead DE&S when it is established as a trading entity on 1 April 2014. His existing contract of employment remains in force.

Defence Equipment and Support

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the expected length of contracts put out for tender under those areas of the Defence Equipment and Support plus model which require additional support from the private sector is; and when he expects any such tenders to be announced.

Philip Dunne: We are currently examining the most effective means of procuring the required additional support. We believe that we can do so quickly through a competitive process that will begin in the new year.

Defence: Procurement

Bernard Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost to his Department has been of establishing the Government Owned, Contractor Operated procurement company to date; and if he will make a statement.

Philip Dunne: A Government-owned, contractor operated (GOCO) company has not been established. Rather, the Materiel Strategy programme has recently concluded its Assessment Phase having considered two options; Defence Equipment and Support Plus (DE&S+) and a GOCO model. The Concept Phase of the programme started in May 2011 and analysed a number of different operating models. The cost incurred in examining the GOCO model through the Concept Phase and the competition was £7.4 million until termination on 10 December 2013.

Departmental Coordination

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to work better with the Department for International Development.

Andrew Murrison: Since the launch of the International Defence Engagement Strategy (IDES) in February of this year, Defence has increased cross-Government links and working relationships through the establishment of the Director-General level Defence Engagement Board of which the Department for International Development (DFID) is a member. At working level, DFID is fully engaged in the development of regional strategies underpinning implementation of IDES.
	We continue to support DFID-led humanitarian assistance, including recently in the Philippines where the UK military played a significant role delivering aid during the disaster relief operation. We are working with DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in delivering the Building Stability Overseas Strategy (BSOS), including through the Conflict Pool, the Stabilisation Unit, the Defence Academy's capacity-building programmes, and through the development of the new Joint Assessments of Conflict and Stability (JACS) tool.

Directors

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of his Department's (a) executive and (b) non-executive board members are identified as (i) white British and (ii) of black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.

Philip Hammond: The Department does not monitor the ethnic composition of its board separately from monitoring the Department as a whole. Even if it did, racial or ethnic identity is sensitive personal data as defined by section 2 of the Data Protection Act 1998. Given the small numbers involved, we could not disclose the results of such general monitoring without infringing the rights of the individuals concerned. Photographs of the board members are available on the departmental website:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence/groups/defence-board

Military Attachés

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many military attachés were part of British diplomatic missions in (a) 1990, (b) 2000, (c) 2010 and (d) 2013.

Andrew Murrison: The information requested is provided in the following table:
	
		
			 As at 1 April: Number of Defence Attachés in year 
			 1993 74 Defence Sections with 129 Defence Attachés 
			 2000 74 Defence Sections with 122 Defence Attachés 
			 2010 71 Defence Sections with 105 Defence Attachés 
			 2013 74 Defence Sections with 117 Defence Attachés 
		
	
	Defence Sections also employ senior non-commissioned officers, United Kingdom-based civilians and locally engaged civilians as support staff. These personnel are not included in the table.
	Information prior to 1993 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Military Attachés

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence to which British diplomatic missions a military attaché is currently attached.

Andrew Murrison: The UK has Defence Sections attached to 75 diplomatic missions in 74 countries:
	Afghanistan
	Algeria
	Argentina
	Australia
	Austria
	Bahrain
	Baltic States (Estonia)
	Bangladesh
	Bosnia and Herzegovina
	Brazil
	Brunei
	Burma
	Canada
	Chile
	China
	Colombia
	Cyprus
	Czech Republic
	Denmark
	Egypt
	Ethiopia
	France
	Georgia
	Germany
	Ghana
	Greece
	India
	Indonesia
	Iraq
	Israel
	Italy
	Jamaica
	Japan
	Jordan
	Kazakhstan
	Kenya
	Korea
	Kuwait
	Lebanon
	Libya
	Macedonia
	Malaysia
	Morocco
	Nepal
	Netherlands
	New Zealand
	Nigeria
	Norway
	Oman
	Pakistan
	Poland
	Qatar
	Romania
	Russia
	Saudi Arabia
	Serbia
	Sierra Leone
	Singapore
	Somalia (based in Kenya)
	South Africa
	South Sudan
	Spain
	Sudan
	Sweden
	Thailand
	Turkey
	Uganda
	Ukraine
	United Arab Emirates
	United States of America (with a separate attaché to the UK Mission to UN New York)
	Uzbekistan
	Vietnam
	Yemen
	Zimbabwe.
	Between them these attachés and advisers cover a further 70 countries through the process of non-resident accreditation. Those countries are:
	Albania
	Angola
	Anguilla
	Armenia
	Azerbaijan
	Bahamas
	Belarus
	Belgium
	Belize
	Bermuda
	Botswana
	British Virgin Islands
	Bulgaria
	Burundi
	Cape Verde
	Cayman
	Islands
	Croatia
	Cuba
	Djibouti
	East Timor
	Eritrea
	Fiji
	Finland
	Gabon
	Guinea
	Hungary
	Iceland
	Ireland
	Ivory Coast
	Kosovo
	Kyrgyzstan
	Latvia
	Liberia
	Lithuania
	Luxembourg
	Malawi
	Mali
	Malta
	Mauritania
	Moldova
	Monaco
	Mongolia
	Montenegro
	Montserrat
	Mozambique
	Namibia
	Papua
	New Guinea
	Paraguay
	Peru
	Philippines
	Portugal
	Rwanda
	Seychelles
	Senegal
	Slovenia
	Slovakia
	Switzerland
	Tajikistan
	Tanzania
	The Gambia
	Togo
	Tonga
	Trinidad and Tobago
	Tunisia
	Turkmenistan
	Turks and Caicos Islands
	Uruguay
	Vanuatu
	Venezuela
	Zambia.
	This response corrects answers given on 10 January 2012 Official Report, columns 23-24W to the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), and 13 December 2012, Official Report, column 422W, to the right hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr Murphy), which incorrectly listed several non-resident accreditation countries for which points of contact were maintained in London without formal non-resident accreditation of an attaché.

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Philip Hammond: Information about ministerial salaries is in the public domain in the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2011. This is available at the following link:
	http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2011/9780111509258/schedule/1
	The latest Ministry of Defence (MOD) ministerial salaries figures are also published in table 7.107 on page 73 of the MOD Annual Report and Accounts 2012-2013. This is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mod-annual-report-and-accounts-201213

Sovereignty: Scotland

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations his Department has received from the Scottish Government in the last 12 months on the proposed transfer of armed forces personnel in the event of Scottish independence, as outlined in Scotland's Future: Your Guide to An Independent Scotland.

Andrew Murrison: None. The Ministry of Defence has not received any representation from the Scottish Government regarding the proposed transfer of armed forces personnel in the event of Scottish independence.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2013, Official Report, column 401W, on unmanned aerial vehicles, how many notifications of possible civilian casualties have been made to (a) any Afghan provincial authority, (b) any Afghan national authority and (c) his Department through operational reporting channels. [R]

Mark Francois: Information on the notification of possible civilian casualties is not held centrally by the Ministry of Defence. All allegations of civilian casualties are reported to the appropriate level in the ISAF command chain.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 4 December 2013, Official Report, column 677W, on unmanned aerial vehicles, what supporting activities are provided by his Department to any civil unmanned system developers or operators when those applications may have some defence outcome.

Philip Dunne: None.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, column 70W, on unmanned aerial vehicles, which remotely piloted in-service aircraft systems are known to have flown in the UK outside danger areas or segregated airspace.

Mark Francois: No Ministry of Defence in-service unmanned aircraft system is known to have been operated in UK airspace outside of a danger area or segregated airspace.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, column 640W, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Information Exchange Agreement with the United States on unmanned aerial systems.

Philip Dunne: The Information Exchange Agreement contains details that are protected by confidentiality obligations and I am therefore withholding the information as its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and another state.

TREASURY

Autumn Statement

Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what sustainability assessment his Department carried out of the provisions in the autumn statement 2013;
	(2)  what sustainability assessment he has carried out on announcements contained in the autumn financial statement, Cm 8747.

Nicky Morgan: The autumn statement is fiscally neutral, ensuring that the improvement in the fiscal forecast contributes to returning the public finances to a sustainable position.
	Since 2010, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has produced the five-year forecasts for the economy and public finances which are published alongside the autumn statement and scrutinised the Treasury's costing of tax and welfare spending measures.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to table B.3 of the 2013 budget report, what forecast he has made of the annual value up to 2017-18 of EU Emission Trading System auction receipts to installations in each of the constituent parts of the UK.

Nicky Morgan: Table B.3 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget 2013 report sets out the Government's forecast for the annual value of the EU Emission Trading System auction receipts up to 2017-18.
	The auction receipts from the EU Emission Trading Scheme are placed within the Treasury's consolidated fund and used to fund spending across the United Kingdom. Revenues are not hypothecated to specific geographical areas so Government is not able to provide a breakdown of allocation of receipts to constituent parts of the UK.

Excise Duties: Fuels

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what recent representations he has received from people in Thirsk and Malton constituency on the rural fuel duty rebate pilot scheme; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what applications he received for the extension to the rural fuel rebate pilot scheme; and what the timetable is for applications to be considered;
	(3)  what progress he is making in receiving state aid approval from the EU Commission for the rural fuel rebate pilot scheme.

Danny Alexander: On 8 November the Government launched the supplementary call for information for the rural fuel rebate scheme. This gave fuel retailers a further opportunity to submit data on their pump prices to the Treasury, as not all retailers were able to provide information through the initial call for information over the summer. The supplementary call for information closed on 6 December.
	In total, as a result of both calls for information, we have received responses from 99 service stations. 58 were from Scotland, 25 from England, eight from Wales and eight from Northern Ireland. Of these responses, two of which were from Thirsk and Malton constituency.
	Officials are currently analysing this data to determine a list of areas to be put the European Commission. The Government requires approval from the European Commission and member states to extend the rural fuel rebate scheme to UK mainland. The Government aims to submit its application in January (after which it could take at least six months for UK to receive a final decision).

Fracking

Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to paragraph 1.182 of the autumn statement 2013, Cm 8747, on benefit provision in areas in which shale gas projects are undertaken, how his Department defines a community.

Nicky Morgan: Shale gas has the potential to create investment, support jobs and increase growth nationally and in local communities. Community benefits will form a part of this and will allow the industry a social license to operate.
	The shale gas industry has published a community engagement charter which sets out their voluntary, industry-led scheme of community benefits. The industry has committed to engage with individuals and organizations in the local communities from an early stage in order to define how the community benefits are paid.

Insurance Companies: Investment Returns

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what returns will be made to insurance company investments under the National Infrastructure Plan; and if he will make a statement.

Danny Alexander: As part of the Government's ‘UK insurance growth action plan’, which was published on 4 December 2013, UK insurers have agreed to work alongside Government regulators, and other interested parties, with the aim of delivering at least £25 billion of investment in UK infrastructure in the next five years.
	Suitable projects for investment will include, but not be limited to those included in the ‘National Infrastructure Plan 2013’, and can include major infrastructure projects led by private sector sponsors. Investment in projects will be a commercial decision for the insurers and the insurers will need to compete on equal terms with other providers of funding. Any return on the investment will be agreed as part of the commercial contract with the project sponsor.

Motorcycles: Imports

Steven Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will suspend fines against official UK motorcycle importers arising from unforeseen consequences of the recent Notification of Vehicle Arrivals (NOVA) legislation, pending development of NOVA procedures for those importers.

David Gauke: The Notification of Vehicle Arrivals (NOVA) system will continue to issue late notification penalties in accordance with the legislation. However, HMRC will reconsider any penalties issued if the customer has a reasonable excuse for the late notification. The NOVA system was introduced to prevent significant VAT fraud on vehicles coming into the UK from abroad raising an estimated £100 million per annum for the Exchequer.

Revenue and Customs: Northern Ireland

William McCrea: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many HM Revenue and Customs staff are employed in Northern Ireland.

Nicky Morgan: The number of HMRC staff in Northern Ireland is 1,858 as of 30 November 2013 (equating to 1,652.3 full-time equivalents.)

Smuggling: Tobacco

William McCrea: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate HM Revenue and Customs has made of loss of revenue as a result of cigarette smuggling into Northern Ireland in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012.

Nicky Morgan: The information requested is not available.
	Estimates of total revenue losses associated with the cigarette illicit market for the UK are published in ‘Tobacco Tax Gap estimates: 2012-13’. These estimates cannot be disaggregated by country or by the type of illicit activity. e.g. through smuggling, counterfeiting or other fraud.
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/tax-gaps/ttg-2013.pdf

Sterling

Angus MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on the continued use of the pound between each remaining constituent part of the UK, the Crown Dependencies and an independent Scotland; and whether he has considered any plans for a new currency in the remaining constituent parts of the UK.

Danny Alexander: In the event of independence, Scotland would leave the UK and its existing arrangements and would need to establish its own institutional framework, including its choice of currency. As the continuing state the UK would continue to use the pound sterling. The pound sterling is not the currency of any of the Crown Dependencies. All of the Crown Dependencies issue their own currencies, which are currently pegged against the pound sterling.
	An independent Scotland could use the pound sterling either by agreeing a formal currency union with the continuing UK or unilaterally adopting sterling. However, it is highly unlikely that a currency union could be agreed or made to work. An independent Scotland could unilaterally adopt sterling, as Panama does with the US dollar and Montenegro does with the euro. In this case, an independent Scotland would then have no control over that currency and its monetary policy, and no central bank to act as lender of last resort to protect individuals' savings and mortgages.

Travel

Christopher Leslie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of travel within the UK was for his Department in each year since 2010; and how much of this was spent on (a) hire cars, (b) helicopter hire, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence.

Nicky Morgan: Details relating to spend on travel and subsistence within the UK since 2010 financial year can be found within the following table.
	
		
			 £ 
			  2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 
			 UK Subsistence 250,494.52 210,905.02 55,568.97 65,387.92 33,281.46 
			 UK Travel 449,681.45 478,654.15 242,337.07 257,263.13 212,895.62 
			 Total UK Travel and Subsistence 700,175.97 689,559.17 297,906.04 322,651.05 246,177.08 
		
	
	Spending on travel and subsistence during 2012-13 has reduced by 65% compared to 2008-09.
	The Department has not incurred any costs for helicopter travel since 2010.
	The Department's accounting system does not separately identify this area of spend to the level of detail specified within the request; it is therefore not possible to provide the full breakdown of these costs as requested.

Welfare Tax Credits

Tessa Munt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many publicans have been in receipt of tax credits in each of the last five years.

Nicky Morgan: This information requested is not collected, and is therefore not available.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

CDC

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment her Department has made of the work of the Commonwealth Development Corporation.

Alan Duncan: The CDC is making good progress in implementing the five year strategy agreed with DFID in 2012. The CDC is moving to a new business model deploying a full range of debt and equity capital—both direct and through funds—thus becoming a more distinctive development finance institution with a focus on investing in sustainable job creation in the poorer countries of Africa and South Asia.
	The CDC has made changes to its staff to deliver its new and ambitious strategy and a new Chair of the board has been appointed to help steer CDC through its transition. CDC's progress against the development targets set by DFID is on track, 2013 commitments are exceeding forecasts and there is a healthy pipeline of planned investments.

Conflict Prevention

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how her Department has implemented the Building Stability Overseas Strategy since 2011; and if she will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: The Prime Minister, on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and other members of the National Security Council (NSC), will shortly present an annual statement to Parliament on implementing the strategic defence and security review, including our work on building stability overseas.
	The UK's response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines has clearly demonstrated the difference that humanitarian aid and support from the armed forces can make in responding to a rapid-onset crisis. Instability and conflict continue to threaten our national security and DFID continues to play its part in addressing the root causes of conflict; helping to get government working better, supporting wealth creation, and improving the delivery of services like security, justice, health and education.
	In the spending review we announced that a new £1 billion Conflict, Stability and Security Fund will be introduced from 2015-16 bringing together defence, diplomatic, development, security and intelligence capabilities, replacing the existing tri-departmental conflict pool. The strategy for this fund will be set by the NSC taking a long-term view of British interests.

Developing Countries: Capital Markets

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she is taking to help developing countries develop their own capital markets.

Justine Greening: As part of our Economic Development strategy, DFID is undertaking work to support capital market development in a number of markets. One example is the new strategic partnership DFID has agreed with the London Stock Exchange Group to support capital market development in East Africa. The first initiative under the partnership will provide training to finance professionals, regulators and government officials to address acute skills shortages that constrain capital market development.

Developing Countries: Taxation

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (b) the World Bank and (c) other international bodies on improving the tax collecting capabilities of developing countries

Lynne Featherstone: DFID has regular discussions with international organisations on tax and development, including the OECD, World Bank and IMF, both bilaterally and in international forums such as the G20 Development Working Group and the OECD's Task Force on Tax and Development.
	Last month, the Secretary of State for International Development announced that DFID will work with the OECD, the World Bank Group, and the Secretariat of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to provide expert technical assistance on international tax issues to improve revenue collection in developing countries and help authorities to combat tax evasion and avoidance.

Developing Countries: Tuberculosis

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to tackle drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis in developing countries.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID supports efforts to tackle multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) through its support to UNITAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria, its bilateral support and research into the development of new, more effective diagnostics, drugs and vaccines to prevent and treat TB.
	For example, DFID funding contributed to the development of GeneXpert test machines. GeneXpert has shortened the times to diagnose drug resistant TB from weeks to a few hours helping those with MDR-TB get treatment earlier. Through our support to UNITAID, they are now being distributed to and used in high burden TB countries.

Grants

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what grants her Department has granted in contravention of UK policy on restrictions, embargoes and sanctions since May 2010.

Justine Greening: It is the responsibility of all spending departments within DFID to comply with UK policy when making grant payments. In a statement to Parliament last week, I reported that approximately £80,000 of UK Aid had been channelled via ring fenced accounts held by the Ministry of Agriculture in Zimbabwe contrary to UK policy.

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Alan Duncan: This information is published in the DFID's Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13 at page 128.

TradeMark Southern Africa

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much has been clawed back from sums allocated to TradeMark Southern Africa.

Justine Greening: Investigations carried out by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) and DFID's internal audit department revealed serious flaws in the governance and programme management of the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme, which in part stemmed from serious errors in the design and implementation phase in 2007-10. Our investigations confirmed that following DFID's commitment in July 2009, £67 million of funds deposited in 2010 have been only partly committed. The remaining uncommitted funds, approximately £44 million, will now be reclaimed by HMG. I have given notice to commence shutting down TMSA with immediate effect.

TradeMark Southern Africa

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) meetings, (b) telephone calls, (c) letters and (d) other forms of communication she and her Ministers have had with TradeMark Southern Africa in the last 12 months.

Justine Greening: Investigations carried out by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) and DFID's internal audit department revealed serious flaws in the governance and programme management of the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme, which in part stemmed from serious errors in the design and implementation phase in 2007-10. Our investigations confirmed that following DFID's commitment in July 2009, £67 million of funds deposited in 2010 have been only partly committed. The remaining uncommitted funds, approximately £44 million, will now be reclaimed by HMG. I have given notice to commence shutting down TMSA with immediate effect.
	Under arrangements put in place in 2010, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) is the managing agent for the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme. Both officials and Ministers have discussed the programme with COMESA.

TradeMark Southern Africa

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much she personally gave approval to be granted to the TradeMark Southern Africa project.

Justine Greening: Investigations carried out by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) and DFID's internal audit department revealed serious flaws in the governance and programme management of the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme, which in part stemmed from serious errors in the design and implementation phase in 2007-10. Our investigations confirmed that following DFID's commitment in July 2009, £67 million of funds deposited in 2010 have been only partly committed. The remaining uncommitted funds, approximately £44 million, will now be reclaimed by HMG. I have given notice to commence shutting down TMSA with immediate effect.
	The TradeMark Southern Africa Programme was approved by Ministers in 2009. Governance arrangements, budgets and salaries of TMSA staff were signed off by the then Secretary of State.

Zimbabwe

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what amount has been spent by schemes supported by her Department in Zimbabwe since May 2010.

Justine Greening: I refer you to the DFID annual reports which can be accessed on the DFID external website.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Bangladesh

George Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Bangladeshi government not to proceed with the execution of Abdul Qader Mollah.

Hugh Robertson: On 10 December, our high commissioner in Dhaka made representations to the Government of Bangladesh. On the same day the Senior Minister of State, my right hon. and noble Friend Baroness Warsi issued a statement expressing her deep concern at the imminent execution and restating our opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances. During her visit to Bangladesh on 12 December, Baroness Warsi reiterated the UK's objection to the use of the death penalty as a matter of principle to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Regrettably, these appeals were not successful and his execution took place on 12 December.

British Council

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the value to the UK of the British Council; and if he will make a statement.

Hugo Swire: The British Council is a valued institution making a significant contribution to the UK's strategic and foreign policy interests.
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is currently conducting a thorough review of the British Council in accordance with Government policy on Triennial Reviews for all non-departmental public bodies. As outlined in the written ministerial statement of 16 July 2013, Official Report, columns 80-81WS, a Review Team has been conducting a wide ranging consultation and has gathered views from around 1,200 organisations and individuals, in the UK and overseas. They have studied all these contributions to evaluate emerging themes and views, prior to submitting conclusions and recommendations to Ministers. The review will then be published.

Conflict Prevention

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how his Department has implemented the Building Stability Overseas Strategy since 2011; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Simmonds: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has implemented the strategy actively, working very closely with the Department for International Development, the Ministry of Defence and others. The Department implements some two-thirds of total Conflict Pool funding. It has implemented a wide range of jointly-agreed Conflict Pool projects to prevent conflict and instability, including, for example, around elections in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Afghanistan; supporting civil society organisations in Pakistan, the Balkans and the Sudans and building capacity for conflict prevention in the African Union.
	The FCO has worked with other Departments to improve the Government's early warning internal assessments and mechanisms, and has encouraged a greater focus on early warning and conflict prevention by our major multilateral partners. On rapid crisis response it has strengthened its ability to respond rapidly to crises. The FCO has used the tri-Departmental Conflict Pool's Early Action Facility to respond to the crisis in Mali in early 2013 and to the dangers of sub-regional contagion from the Syria crisis. It is working with other Departments to improve further our implementation of BSOS, resourced through the new £1 billion Conflict, Stability and Security Fund in FY2015-16. This fund will build on the existing Conflict Pool to help prevent conflict and tackle threats to UK interests arising from instability overseas.

Food Banks

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which food banks each Minister in his Department has visited since May 2010.

David Lidington: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers have not visited food banks in the UK in their ministerial capacity.

Religious Freedom

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) China, (b) Saudi Arabia and (c) Vietnam on protection of religious liberty in those countries.

David Lidington: The promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief is a key priority for this Government and we regularly raise our concerns with other countries either bilaterally, with EU partners or in multilateral fora.
	We have raised freedom of religion or belief with the Chinese Government directly including through their recent Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in October. We also raised the issue with Saudi Arabia as part of our advanced questions during their Universal Periodic Review at the same Human Rights Council Session. Freedom of religion or belief was also raised during the third round of the EU-Vietnam enhanced Human Rights Dialogue on 11 September in Hanoi. The EU highlighted concerns about the reported harassment of religious groups, the delays in registering churches and the refusal of the authorities to allow churches to train pastors.
	We work to promote and defend freedom of religion or belief not just through our bilateral relationships and through our work in international organisations but through supporting projects and through collaborative work with civil society.

Sri Lanka

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress he expects the Sri Lankan government to make on an independent investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses before the UK decides not to pursue a resolution on an international inquiry at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014.

Hugo Swire: During his meeting with President Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister called for the Sri Lankan Government to make real progress on a credible and transparent, independent investigation into allegations of violations of humanitarian and human rights law during the military conflict. The Prime Minister has said that the UK would use its place on the UN Human Rights Council to call for an international investigation if there has been no progress. An assessment will be made at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014.

Sri Lanka

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on (a) the text of a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka for the session in March 2014 calling for an international inquiry, (b) the terms of reference for such an inquiry and (c) the membership of such an inquiry.

Hugo Swire: We continue to press the Sri Lankan Government for credible, transparent and independent investigations into alleged war crimes and have made clear that these investigations need to have begun properly by March or we will use our seat on the UN Human Rights Council to call for an international investigation. We regularly discuss Sri Lanka, including accountability, with a range of other EU, Commonwealth and international partners. In those discussions we are exploring options, including the content of a UNHRC Resolution, ahead of the March session. It is too soon to define what any international investigation might consist of.

Sri Lanka

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs with which members of the UN Human Rights Council he has discussed the case for an independent, international inquiry into the Sri Lankan civil war; and what recent assessment he has made of the strength of international support for such an inquiry.

Hugo Swire: We regularly discuss Sri Lanka, including accountability and the need for progress on a credible transparent and independent investigation into alleged war crimes ahead of the March UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in March 2014, with a range of other EU, Commonwealth and international partners. The UK has been voted back on to the UNHRC and will play an active role in building international support ahead of the March UNHRC session, where an assessment will be made of Sri Lankan progress to date. The UK previously co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka in March 2013 which urged Sri Lanka to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. We will coordinate closely with the members of the UNHRC to build support for an appropriate resolution on Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the ability and willingness of the Sri Lankan Government to conclude an independent investigation into alleged war crimes before March 2014; and what criteria he has set for such an inquiry to be considered credible.

Hugo Swire: We have urged the Sri Lankan Government to ensure that a credible, transparent and independent investigation into alleged war crimes has begun properly by March 2014. We have made clear that any investigation must be internationally accepted to be considered credible.
	We share the concerns of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, that there have been no credible efforts to independently investigate the allegations to date. Progress will be assessed at the March 2014 UN Human Rights Council.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Floods: Housing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many households in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area have been flooded in the last three years.

Dan Rogerson: I have placed three tables in the House Library which show the number of properties flooded during the last three years. Information on the number of properties flooded in each parliamentary constituency and local authority area are only available for the last two years.
	The Environment Agency does not hold detailed information that is easily accessible for flooding prior to 2012. For 2011-12 the number of properties flooded is shown by Environment Agency region only.
	Annex 1 shows the number of properties flooded in each parliamentary constituency over the last two years.
	Annex 2 shows the number of properties flooded in each local authority area over the last two years.
	Annex 3 shows the number of properties flooded in each Environment Agency region between April 2011 and March 2012.
	The totals include properties flooded in England and Wales up until March 2013, and properties flooded in England only since April 2013.
	All figures are subject to change as the Environment Agency collates information and updates its records accordingly.

Floods: Morecambe

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the progress of the grant-assisted alleviation of shingle migration and flooding at Teal Bay, Morecambe.

Dan Rogerson: In July 2013 the Environment Agency, on behalf of DEFRA, approved a grant in aid sum of £71,000 to Lancaster city council, the Coast Protection Authority, towards resolving the issue of shingle migration in the Teal Bay area of Morecambe. This work involved the construction of rock armour groyne to prevent the Bare Beck tidal outfall becoming blocked by migrating shingle on the beach. This work has reduced the risk of flooding to over 1130 properties.
	This work is now complete and an assessment of its success is currently being undertaken by Lancaster city council.

Floods: Morecambe

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the progress of construction of sea wall defences in the Hest Bank and Teal Bay area of Morecambe.

Dan Rogerson: In August 2012 the Environment Agency, on behalf of DEFRA, approved a grant in aid of £35,000 to Lancaster city council, the Coast Protection Authority, towards completing a study to update its coastal strategy, specifically in relation to an assessment of the coastal frontage between Hest Bank (Teal Bay) and Heysham.
	The study, when complete, will guide the ongoing maintenance and capital investment required for this section of the Morecambe Bay frontage. The study will deliver a revised coastal monitoring programme and a schedule of future capital investment and remedial works in the area.
	The study is due to be completed by Lancaster city council by March 2014.

Food Banks

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which food banks each Minister in his Department has visited since May 2010.

Dan Rogerson: Food banks which DEFRA Ministers have visited since May 2010 are detailed in the following table:
	
		
			 Name Location Date 
			 Owen Paterson Bargates Hall, Whitchurch 11 October 2013 
			 George Eustice Century Church, Camborne 12 October 2013 
			 Lord de Mauley Swindon Food Bank 15 November 2013

Land Drainage: Urban Areas

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the use of sustainable urban drainage systems to support water management in urban areas.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency published an assessment on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) in October 2013. The assessment included a review of historical evidence and new evidence on SUDS in London and how other cities are implementing SUDS. The Environment Agency's assessment is published on its website at:
	http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/SuDS_and_the_Thames_Tunnel_Assessment_ Final_Report_Oct_2013.pdf

Poultry: Exports

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to introduce a new system of electronic certification to facilitate the export of poultry meat and breeding stock.

George Eustice: The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) is the delivery body for issuing Export Health Certificates for England, Scotland and Wales. The delivery body for Northern Ireland is the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).
	The AHVLA is currently working on the first phase of an IT solution for the provision of Export Health Certification which will be rolled put to exporters during the spring of 2014. Phase 1 is a cost effective, secure and efficient solution that will enable applications to be submitted electronically by exporters 24 hours a day and certificates to be issued within 24-hours of receipt where required.
	The certification process for exports consigned to third countries from Northern Ireland is managed by DARD and therefore differs from the processes currently used in Great Britain.

Poultry: South Africa

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will defend the poultry industry against accusations of dumping made by the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa.

George Eustice: The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) is an independent non-government body. This ITAC investigation is the initial stage in a process being conducted under World Trade Organisation rules on dumping practices and does not allow for Government intervention at this point in the process.
	Pending the outcome of the investigation, we will consider what action it may be appropriate to take.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Affordable Housing: Construction

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many social houses were constructed in the UK in 2012-13.

Kris Hopkins: The Department publishes statistics on Affordable Housing Supply in England. In 2012-13, there were 22,850 homes for social and affordable rent built in England. Overall, including homes for intermediate rent and affordable home ownership, there were 42,830 affordable homes delivered in England in 2012-13. Figures for the other UK countries are a matter for the devolved administrations.

Carbon Monoxide: Alarms

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will update his Department's current guidance on the responsibility of private landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors in residential properties. [R]

Stephen Williams: The Department is taking forward a review of property conditions in the private rented sector which will, among other things, consider whether landlords should be required to install carbon monoxide alarms in their properties. The outcome of that review will inform any revisions that we may make to existing guidance.

Housing

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the potential effects of the pooling of £400 million from the New Homes Bonus within local enterprise partnership areas on the provisions of local council services.

Kris Hopkins: I refer my hon. Friend to the recent letter from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles), to local authority leaders following the autumn statement; I have placed a copy in the Library of the House.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will estimate the average cost of moving house for people who move as a consequence of the under-occupancy penalty; and if he will make it his policy to provide a subsidy for such costs.

Kris Hopkins: The Department does not hold this information.
	The removal of the spare room subsidy is estimated to save £490 million of taxpayers' money in Great Britain in 2013-14 by reducing the benefit bill, helping pay off the budget deficit left by the last Administration. The measure also encourages the more effective use of social housing, by addressing the under-occupation of family homes.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will make an assessment of the effect of the under-occupancy penalty on social cohesion in neighbourhoods in which a high proportion of tenants are affected by that policy.

Kris Hopkins: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to him of 22 November 2013, Official Report, columns 1072-1073W.

Housing: Merseyside

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of (a) recent trends in the supply of and demand for larger properties in the Merseyside area and (b) whether his Department is aware of any plans for demolition of over-large properties for which there is over-supply as a result of the under-occupancy penalty.

Kris Hopkins: My Department has seen no credible evidence that properties are being demolished as a result of the removal of the spare room subsidy.
	Otherwise, I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 27 November 2013, Official Report, columns 339-341W.

Non-domestic Rates: Worcestershire

Robin Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  how many businesses in (a) Worcester and (b) Worcestershire are in receipt of 100 per cent small business rate relief;
	(2)  how many businesses in (a) Worcester and (b) Worcestershire are currently in receipt of small business rate relief.

Brandon Lewis: Ratepayers generally benefit from a small business rate relief discount if they occupy only one property and it has a rateable value of below £12,000.
	Ratepayers occupying properties with rateable vales below £18,000 (£25,500 in London) pay the small business multiplier, regardless of the number of properties that they occupy, and therefore do not pay the supplement which generally funds small business rate relief discounts.
	Although small business rate relief is funded by a supplement on the bills of higher rateable value properties, central Government is funding the extra costs associated with the current doubling the level of the discount available under the scheme. The level of relief has now been doubled between October 2010 and 31 March 2015.
	Details of the number of businesses in Worcestershire that were benefitting from the small business rate relief scheme as at 31 December 2010 are shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Number of businesses paying the lower multiplier and receiving a discount Number of businesses paying the lower multiplier and not receiving a discount Total number of businesses benefiting from the small business rate relief scheme as at 31 December 2010 
			 Worcestershire 5,242 532 5,774 
			 Of which:    
			 Bromsgrove 744 115 859 
			 Malvern Hills 946 69 1,015 
			 Redditch 568 73 641 
			 Worcester 714 82 796 
			 Wychavon 1,368 126 1,494 
			 Wyre Forest 902 67 969 
		
	
	Data as at 31 December 2012, which will include information on the number of businesses that were in receipt of 100 per cent small business rate relief were collected earlier this year and are currently being validated. This information will be published in January 2014.
	We have announced that the temporary doubling will continue for a further year until 31 March 2015. We estimate that over half a million businesses in England are benefiting, with approximately a third of a million paying no rates at all. The Localism Act 2011 has also made it easier for eligible small firms to claim their small business rate relief.
	We are also allowing ratepayers receiving small business rate relief that take on an additional property to continue receiving their existing relief for 12 months.

Planning Permission: Hampshire

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many planning appeals have resulted in local authority decisions being overturned by the planning inspector in (a) Portsmouth South constituency and (b) Hampshire in each of the last five years.

Nicholas Boles: Planning is a quasi-judicial process; it is a long-standing feature of the planning system that there is a right of appeal, just as there are with other local quasi-judicial decisions such as on licensing applications, gambling applications or parking fines.[Official Report, 10 February 2014, Vol. 575, c. 3MC.]
	Since January 2008 there have been 83,507 Planning Appeal decisions for Portsmouth and 1,169,098 for the whole of Hampshire. An analysis of decisions by individual constituencies, such as Portsmouth South, is not available.
	
		
			 Portsmouth 
			  Allowed Dismissed Total 
			 2008 7,048 13,936 20,984 
			 2009 6,251 12,096 18,347 
			 2010 5,228 10,579 15,807 
			 2011 5,193 9,982 15,175 
			 2012 4,622 8,572 13,194 
		
	
	
		
			 Hampshire 
			  Allowed Dismissed Total 
			 2008 98,630 195,146 293,776 
			 2009 87,514 169,344 256,858 
			 2010 73,192 148,106 221,298 
			 2011 72,702 139,748 212,450 
			 2012 64,708 120,008 184,716 
		
	
	These figures show how the number of planning appeals received and allowed has fallen in the first year of the National Planning Policy Framework, refuting the suggestion of 'planning by appeal'.

Private Rented Housing

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will publish the evidence used by his Department in formulating its policy to require landlords to check visas of prospective tenants prior to renting.

Kris Hopkins: holding answer 5 December 2013
	The landlord checking aspects of the Immigration Bill would require landlords to undertake migration checks on all adult tenants in the private rented sector, where the accommodation is their main or only home, except where the type of accommodation is specified as excluded within schedule 3 of the Bill. These checks would be light-touch and proportionate, building on the identity checks that many landlords already conduct on prospective tenants and on a similar scheme that already applies to employers.
	The evidence the Government used to formulate this policy is set out in the following documents:
	The consultation document, found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/226713/consultation.pdf
	The Government response to the consultation, found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249616/Consultation_Response.pdf
	The impact assessment, found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251968/Landlords_Impact_Assessment.pdf

Social Rented Housing

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will rank each English local authority by the percentage change in the number of units of social housing since 1990.

Kris Hopkins: holding answer 10 December 2013
	The Department does not hold a complete set of figures at local authority district level to fully answer this question.

Social Rented Housing

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will rank each English local authority by the number of social housing starts since April 2010.

Kris Hopkins: holding answer 10 December 2013
	Statistics on house building starts by tenure in each local authority are published in the Department's live tables 253 (annual) and 253a (quarterly), which are available at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
	Taken together, the private registered provider (housing association) and local authority tenures provide estimates of total social housing starts, but these figures understate total social housing supply. This is because the house building figures are categorised by the type of developer rather than the intended final tenure, leading to under recording of social housing, and a corresponding over recording of private enterprise figures.
	More comprehensive statistics on affordable housing starts by tenure funded by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London authority since 2009-10 are available at the following links:
	http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/housing-statistics
	http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/housing-land/increasing-housing-supplv/gla-affordable-housing-statistics
	Taken together, the starts on site for social and affordable rent provide estimates of total social housing starts. These statistics include both newly-built housing and acquisitions but exclude delivery of affordable housing not funded by the Homes and Communities Agency and Greater London authority programmes.
	For context, figures at an England level show that there have been over 113,000 affordable housing starts on site reported by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London authority since April 2010. 86,000 of these were social housing starts.

Vacant Land

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  what his policy is on the use of greenfield sites for new home building;
	(2)  if he will review the criteria for building on greenfield sites.

Nicholas Boles: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, column 633W.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Apprentices: Hampshire

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people in (a) Portsmouth South constituency and (b) Hampshire were in apprenticeships in each of the last three years.

Matthew Hancock: Table 1 shows the numbers participating in an apprenticeship in Portsmouth South constituency and Hampshire local education authority for the 2011/12 and 2012/13 academic years.
	Information on apprenticeship participation is not published by geography for academic years before 2011/12.
	
		
			 Table 1: Apprenticeship participation in Portsmouth South parliamentary constituency and Hampshire local education authority, 2011/12 to 2012/13 
			  2011/12 2012/13 
			 Portsmouth South Parliamentary Constituency 1,250 1,380 
			 Hampshire Local Education Authority 20,990 23,020 
			 Notes: 1. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Parliamentary constituency and local education authority are based upon the home postcode of the learner.

Business

William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in the devolved administrations on business prospects in the different regions of the UK.

Michael Fallon: BIS Ministers and officials from this Department are in contact with their devolved Administration counterparts on a range of issues. For example, the Minister for Skills and Enterprise, my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock), sits on the Northern Ireland Economic Pact Working Group on Access to Finance along with Ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive. The first meeting of this working group took place on 8 October 2013.

Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) black-owned and (b) minority ethnic group-owned businesses in the UK have been granted an Enterprise Finance Guarantee loan by the Partnership banks to date.

Matthew Hancock: holding answer 16 December 2013
	As Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme loans are provided from the lenders' own funds under a commercial agreement between the lender and borrower, these data are not collected by the Department.
	The Department for Communities and Local Government did however publish a report in July called ‘Ethnic minority businesses and access to finance’. This outlines the actions that the British Bankers' Association has committed to, to improve availability of finance to ethnic minorities. The report is available on the www.gov.uk website.

Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many female-led businesses in the UK have been granted an Enterprise Finance Guarantee loan by the Partnership banks to date.

Matthew Hancock: holding answer 16 December 2013
	As Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme loans are provided from the lenders' own funds under a commercial agreement between the lender and borrower, these data are not collected by the Department.
	The Deputy Prime Minister's Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government did however publish an independent report in June called ‘Banking on Women: an action plan to open up access to finance for women’. The Government has now joined forces with the banking industry to devise the action plan, focusing on giving women the support and confidence to ask for the financial help they need. The report is available on the www.gov.uk website.

EU External Trade: USA

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  with reference to the London School of Economics report, Costs and benefits of an EU-USA Investment Protection Treaty, commissioned by his Department and published in April 2013, what assessment he has made of the value of inserting a provision for an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of which EU member states and US states have a legal system that does not guarantee adequate protection for foreign investors.

Michael Fallon: The Government has consistently pushed for an ambitious and broad agreement under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and to begin negotiations with all issues on the table. I am mindful that the research we commissioned highlighted certain risks associated with including investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the TTIP. Negotiations are at an early stage and the UK is pushing for an appropriate balance between protecting UK investors and ensuring that the UK Government is not prevented from regulating in the public interest.

Higher Education: Student Numbers

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students were in higher education in (a) Portsmouth South constituency and (b) Hampshire in each of the last three years.

David Willetts: The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The table shows the number of enrolments in the Portsmouth South constituency, Hampshire and England for the academic years 2009/10 to 2011/12.
	Information for the 2012/13 academic year will become available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in January 2014.
	
		
			 Number of student enrolments1 domiciled2 in Portsmouth South parliamentary constituency, Hampshire and England, UK Higher Education Institutions, academic years 2009/10 to 2011/12 
			  Academic year 
			 Domicile 2009/10 2010/113 2011/123 
			 Portsmouth South Parliamentary constituency 3,335 2,460 2,520 
			 Hampshire4 50,820 50,990 51,285 
			 England 1,709,085 1,704,930 1,706,255 
			 1 Enrolments refers to students in all years of study. 2 Domicile, local authority and constituency refers to a student's permanent or home address prior to entry to their course. 3 As at the 2010 United Kingdom general election, on 6 May 2010, the parliamentary constituency boundaries changed. From the 2010/11 academic year these changes are reflected in the table. The boundary changes are likely to have made some impact on the time series between 2009/10 and 2010/11 4 Includes the local authorities of Portsmouth, Hampshire and Southampton. Notes: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded up or down to the nearest five, so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record

Job Creation: Greater London

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans his Department has to support the creation of jobs in Greater London.

Michael Fallon: The Mayor has a statutory responsibility for economic development in London. It is for the Mayor, advised by the London Enterprise Panel (LEP), to determine priorities for economic development in the capital and to use the resources available to the Greater London Assembly and the LEP and its partners to support the creation of jobs in Greater London.

Manufacturing Industries: Environment Protection

Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to support UK Green Manufacturing.

Michael Fallon: Manufacturing is crucial to our recovery, export and future growth in productivity. The Government is working with manufacturers and their supply chains and is taking steps to strengthen and grow modern and sustainable manufacturing in the UK by encouraging innovation, business investment, technology commercialisation, skills and exports.
	As part of its industrial strategy the Government published a series of sector strategies jointly developed with industry. The published sector strategies include examples of how Government and industry can work together to support future manufacturing. For example, ‘Lifting Off’, the aerospace strategy includes:
	£100 million for low-carbon aero-engine technology in support of a target to reduce fuel emissions by over 20% over 20 years
	An aspiration to develop green manufacturing technologies to reduce energy usage
	£400 million Government-industry investment in the Airbus North Factory in North Wales which uses biomass and solar panels in wing construction and complements the Airbus Global Vision of reducing CO2 emissions in manufacturing by 50% and energy use by 30% by 2020
	In the automotive strategy, 'Driving success', measures include:
	Government and industry together to invest £1 billion over 10 years in an Advanced Propulsion Centre to support the development of supply chains for low-carbon vehicles.
	The Office of Low Emission Vehicles has £400 million to 2015 to support measures encouraging the development of ultra-low emission vehicles.
	In addition, the Nuclear and Offshore Wind sector strategies focus specifically on how to build the UK supply chain to support development of these sectors.
	The Technology Strategy Board has established a series of Catapult centres across the UK to support technological innovation in key sectors, including the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre near Rotherham. The Manufacturing Catapult is the catalyst for the future growth and success of manufacturing in the UK and its long-term goal is to stimulate growth in manufacturing and more than double the sector's contribution to UK GDP.
	The GO-Science Foresight report, ‘The Future of Manufacturing’, published on 30 October 2013, has highlighted a number of trends which are likely to increase pressures for manufacturing to be more resource efficient. We are working closely with the Foresight team on the implications of this analysis and advice for Government policy.

Manufacturing Industries: Government Assistance

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many companies have (a) been announced as being the recipient of and (b) received money related to the advanced manufacturing supply chain initiative in rounds (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four to date.

Michael Fallon: Advanced manufacturing supply chain initiative (AMSCI) projects are long-term collaborations, typically five years in duration. Many projects are still in their very early stages. The draw-down of money is as forecast by the individual projects within their own delivery plans.
	Account managers at our delivery partner, Finance Birmingham, work hard within the rules of the scheme to ensure projects go ahead on time. AMSCI projects involve multiple companies of often widely varying size and capacity in consortia. Changes to market conditions, ownership and strategy in any one company in the consortium can delay commencement of the project and draw-down of funds. Account managers work with the lead applicant of each successful project to reformulate the project or identify new partners as required.
	In Round 1, there are nine projects in total. Six of these projects have received funds. Of the three which are still to receive funds two have always been scheduled to start in 2014, and one has been engaged in finding new partners for their consortium.
	In Round 2 there are 11 projects, nine of which have received funds. Of the two which are still to receive funds, one has been awaiting internal board decisions, and the other has been involved in a restructure.
	In Round 3, five projects have been approved. These are at various stages of financial due diligence and state aid compliance.
	For Round 4, the Independent Investment Board met on Monday 2 December 2013. An announcement will be made in the new year as to how many projects have been successful.
	The nine projects approved from July to December 2013 in the regional West Midlands and Liverpool City Region scheme are at various stages of financial due diligence and state aid compliance.

Met Office

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what work the Met Office undertakes for foreign governments.

Michael Fallon: The Met Office undertakes a range of work for foreign governments. Usually this is carried out in partnership with foreign government agencies and research organisations, or through donor funded development projects, or under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation. This includes work: to improve weather and climate modelling capabilities through collaborative research and development projects; to help developing countries improve their capacity to forecast weather and climate and deal with the impacts of severe weather, for example by training weather forecasters and improving weather observing systems; to support defence operations, and to improve resilience to climate variability and climate change.

Met Office

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what work the Met Office undertakes for the (a) Scottish Government, (b) Welsh Assembly Government and (c) Northern Ireland Executive.

Michael Fallon: The Met Office is the UK's National Meteorological Service with responsibility for providing weather and climate services for the whole UK, including delivery of the public weather service and national severe weather warning service.
	The Met Office therefore maintains close links with the devolved Administrations and works in partnership with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to provide the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service, and weather information to support Transport Scotland. It also works with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) through the Flood Forecasting Centre to help deliver flood forecasting services in Wales, and provides air quality advice to support NRW in the event of major incidents. In Northern Ireland, the Met Office provides services to support the work of the Department for Regional Development, the Department of Social Development, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Rivers Agency.

Regional Development Agencies

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding his Department allocated to development agencies in the (a) North West, (b) North East and (c) Yorkshire in (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09 and (iii) 2009-10.

Michael Fallon: The Single Pot allocations to the regional development agencies in question were as follows:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  North West Development Agency One North East Yorkshire Forward 
			 2009-10 399 249 321 
			 2008-09 385 245 297 
			 2007-08 395 277 305

Regional Growth Fund

Dave Watts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  what his policy is on extending the regional growth programme beyond September 2014;
	(2)  what funding assistance he will put in place to assist regional growth after September 2014.

Michael Fallon: The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) runs beyond September 2014. RGF is a flexible fund operating across England from 2011 to 2017 and creating jobs into the mid-2020s.
	The budget allocation for the latest rounds of RGF (Rounds 5 and 6) is £600 million. The deadline for applications for Round 5 of the RGF was 9 December 2013 and the bidders selected for a conditional allocation will be announced in the spring. Round 6 of RGF will be open for applications in summer 2014.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on how many occasions Mr Lawrence Tomlinson has met officials from the Insolvency Service in relation to his report on RBS; and on which dates such meetings took place.

Jo Swinson: Lawrence Tomlinson met officials from the Insolvency Service on three occasions, 18 September, 11 November and 18 November 2013.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether officials from the Insolvency Service were consulted ahead of the publication of Mr Lawrence Tomlinson's report on RBS; and whether the report was approved by the Insolvency Service.

Jo Swinson: Lawrence Tomlinson met Insolvency Service officials on three occasions to discuss his concerns about bank treatment of businesses in financial difficulty. However, Mr Tomlinson wrote and published his report in an individual capacity. It was not a matter for consultation with, or approval by, anyone in the Insolvency Service,

Royal Bank of Scotland

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether investigations are being carried out by the Insolvency Service into the findings of Mr Lawrence Tomlinson's report on RBS.

Jo Swinson: Officials in the Insolvency Service are looking carefully at the evidence Mr Lawrence Tomlinson has prepared. They will consider whether there are any issues that need to be raised with the regulatory bodies for insolvency practitioners and whether there are any issues for the legislative framework on insolvency that need to be addressed. In doing so they will also take into account any findings of the independent review commissioned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which it announced on 29 October, into banks' treatment of businesses in financial difficulty following the recent allegations that have been made by Mr Tomlinson and others.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what meetings have taken place between (a) Ministers and (b) officials at his Department and staff at the Insolvency Service in relation to Mr Lawrence Tomlinson's report on RBS.

Jo Swinson: Ministers, special advisers and officials have had regular meetings with Mr Tomlinson since his appointment as an Entrepreneur in Residence in March 2013. Ministers and officials meet regularly to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the banking and wider financial services sector and the insolvency industry.

Science: Africa

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to promote science skills, research and understanding in Africa.

David Willetts: The Government is keen to increase the number and scale of UK science and research collaborations with our partners in Africa.
	In 2012 we expanded the BIS/FCO Science and Innovation Network (SIN) into South Africa and Nigeria with the creation of new officer posts in Abuja, Cape Town and Pretoria. As well as building relationships with the governments and institutions within both countries, we are also looking to the SIN officers to act as entry points for science and innovation collaborations in other parts of sub-Saharan and West Africa.
	Further, aided by the new Global Collaborative Space Programme announced in the autumn statement, the UK Space Agency is looking to strengthen partnerships in several African countries including Algeria and Nigeria. Space technology is an important tool in assisting development priorities such as resource usage, communications and education; and UK expertise in these fields is very relevant to Africa's future.
	I also visited South Africa in September as part of the UK-South Africa Bilateral Forum. At the forum the South African Science Minister, Derek Hanekom, and I signed an agreement to fund a UK-South Africa scientific seminar scheme to facilitate meetings of early to mid-career scientists from our two countries.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Atos Healthcare

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many medical professionals Atos is obliged to employ under its contract with his Department.

Michael Penning: The contract does not state a specific number of health care professionals (HCP), however it does state it is for the contractor to maintain as many HCPs as necessary to enable it to deliver all service levels contained within the contract.

Atos Healthcare

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what contractual penalties are in place if Atos fails to meet targets or fulfil obligations.

Michael Penning: There are a range of financial remedies available within the Medical Services contract to address service level failure. However this is a matter of commercial in confidence between the Department of Work and Pensions and its supplier Atos Healthcare.

Disability Living Allowance

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to ensure that standard forms for disability living allowance applications capture an accurate portrayal of needs.

Michael Penning: Disability living allowance (DLA) is being replaced for working age claimants by personal independence payment (PIP). PIP will involve a more sophisticated evidence gathering process, most usually involving a face-to-face consultation between the claimant and an independent health professional, so that a reliable picture of the customer's ability can be measured against clearly defined criteria.
	Applications for DLA will continue for children under the age of 16, renewal activity for people already in receipt of DLA who were aged 65 or over on 8 April 2013 and continuing renewal and change of circumstances activity for working age claimants outside of the areas where DLA to PIP natural reassessment has currently been rolled out to.
	The design and development of DLA claim forms, including a child-specific claim form, involved extensive consultation with the Disability Advisory Forum, which collectively represented organisations covering a wide range of disabilities. The Disability Advisory Forum was involved at formative and later stages of the development of the claim forms.
	All DLA claim forms have been designed to gather as full and accurate picture as possible about an individual's disability or disabilities, any treatment or therapies being received and the care and mobility needs arising.

Disability: Children

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of changes in benefits payable to disabled children as a result of policy changes implemented in the last three years.

Michael Penning: Disability living allowance (DLA) provides a valuable non income-related and tax free cash contribution towards the disability related extra costs of severely disabled people, including children. The benefit can also act as a passport to a wide range of other help including carers allowance for parents or guardians and the Blue Badge Disabled Parking Scheme. DLA expenditure on children increased from £1.3 billion to £1.4 billion in real terms between 2009-10 and 2012-13.1
	With the introduction of UC, the disabled child addition is intended to provide extra support to low income families including a disabled child. Caring responsibilities can mean that the parents of disabled children are less able to take up work and so might need extra support for longer periods than would otherwise be the case.
	Universal credit simplifies existing provision and aligns the additional elements for disabled children with those for adults. Aligning child and adult payments through these reforms should help to smooth the transition into adulthood for severely disabled young people who need to rely on universal credit for ongoing support.
	Some families with a disabled child may be entitled to lower amounts under universal credit than now. However there will be transitional protection for existing claimants where their circumstances remain unchanged. Also some disabled children and the most severely disabled adults will actually receive more support than now.
	The Government is not making any savings from this-the changes to disability support we are making in universal credit are cost neutral and will focus support to the most severely disabled people.
	The Government will also extend eligibility for the higher rate to children who are registered blind (currently only entitled to the disabled child element in tax credits).
	The Government regularly produces analysis of the cumulative impact of all coalition changes, including welfare, on households across the income distribution. This information is published at every Budget and other major fiscal events, in the interests of transparency. The most recent update was published with the autumn statement on 5 December 2013, Official Report, columns 1101-1113.
	The impact of welfare changes on households cannot be seen in isolation. The tax and public spending decisions Government makes also affects the take-home income of households and their living standards. That is why the Treasury conducts cumulative analysis of all changes in the round.
	This type of analysis is complex and results can only be reliably shown at a high level. Therefore, the break downs requested are not available. It is also important to note that cumulative analysis shows the impact of coalition policies compared with a hypothetical scenario of all the previous Government's policies continued forwards. These previous policies were not affordable.
	The Government routinely informs its decision-making through equality analysis of individual policy changes, as required by the Equality Act. All major welfare reform changes have been accompanied by a published equality impact assessment and these are updated if impacts change.
	On 2 July 2013 the Government published its disability strategy 'Fulfilling Potential-Making it Happen'. Its vision is of a society that enables all disabled people to fulfil their potential and have equal opportunities to realise their aspirations. An outcomes and indicators framework has been put in place to help track progress towards the vision of 'Fulfilling Potential'. This will include publishing annual measures of disabled people's income, compared with that of non-disabled people.
	Disability living allowance data is published via the tabulation tool, which includes data on average amounts. We intend to publish official statistics on personal independence payment from spring 2014. The initial release is unlikely to include data on average amounts; this information will be released at a later date. Details of the publication strategy can be found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262511/pip-stats-release-strategy-021213.pdf
	1https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/222845/expenditure_tables_Budget_2013.xls#'DisabilityBenefits'!A1

Disclosure of Information

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints have been made to his Department about failure to supply information in an accessible format in each of the last three years.

Michael Penning: DWP have recently completed the gradual roll-out of a new DWP complaints process. Complaints are recorded against various standard DWP categories and related sub-categories. A sub-category regarding ‘Alternative formats not provided’ was introduced in May 2011 to those offices operating the new process, under the category ‘You haven't given me the information that suits my needs’, therefore we do not have the information requested prior to May 2011. Data relating to this category are available for the dates shown, but only cover areas of DWP which had rolled out the new process at that time.
	
		
			 Volumes 
			  May 2011 to March 2012 April 2012 to March 2013 April 2013 to October 2013 
			 Complaints received under the new complaints process 12,522 48,320 43,037 
			 DWP category: You haven't given me the information that suits my needs 1,809 8,650 8,590 
			 DWP sub-category: Alternative formats not provided 29 69 47

Food Banks

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what food banks each of the Ministers in his Department has visited since May 2010.

Esther McVey: Since 2010, DWP Ministers have visited food banks in their constituencies.

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Michael Penning: Details of ministerial salaries are included in Remuneration Report section of the Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13. This is available in the public domain at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-work-and-pensions-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013

New Enterprise Allowance

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make the new enterprise allowance available to work programme participants.

Esther McVey: There are currently no plans to extend the new enterprise allowance to participants in the Work programme. A core principle of the Work programme is that providers are free to offer the interventions they feel are right for the individual, at the right time. Providers can, and do, offer self-employment support and it would not be right for us to pay for people to participate in these two programmes at the same time.
	Work programme participants who move into self-employment may also apply for a Start-Up loan to support them in setting up their business.

Personal Independence Payment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average waiting time for a Capita-run health assessment for those seeking to claim Personal Independence Payment is; what procedure Capita uses to notify claimants of cancelled assessments; and what telephone number Capita uses for the Personal Independence Payment claimant helpline.

Michael Penning: Personal independence payment started from April 2013 and nationally from June 2013. The Department has committed to publish statistics in the spring 2014 when sufficient and meaningful information can be quality assured.
	The length of time taken to arrange an assessment varies considerably, based on a number of factors including the claimants personal circumstances.
	If an appointment has to be rearranged, Capita will contact the claimant by telephone to inform them. When they contact the claimant they will outline the reasons why the appointment has been cancelled and give options for a new appointment. If Capita are unable to reach the claimant initially, they continue to call them until they are able to make contact and this is recorded on their systems.
	Capita's claimant helpline numbers which are available on their internet site are:
	Enquiry Centre, Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 8.00 pm: 08081788114 (England and Wales), or 08081788115 (llinell Gymraeg/Welsh line); and
	if a claimant has speech or hearing difficulties, they can contact them by textphone on 08081787177.

Social Security Benefits

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  what recent assessment he has made of the effect on disabled people of the Government's welfare reform policies since 2010;
	(2)  what comparative assessment he has made of the effect of welfare reforms implemented in the last three years on the average amounts claimed by (a) disabled and (b) non-disabled claimants.

Michael Penning: The Government regularly produces analysis of the cumulative impact of all coalition changes, including welfare, on households across the income distribution. This information is published at every Budget and other major fiscal events, in the interests of transparency. The most recent update was published with the autumn statement on 5 December.
	The impact of welfare changes on households cannot be seen in isolation. The tax and public spending decisions Government makes also affects the take-home income of households and their living standards. That is why the Treasury conducts cumulative analysis of all changes in the round.
	This type of analysis is complex and results can be reliably shown at a high level only. Therefore, the break downs requested are not available. It is also important to note that cumulative analysis shows the impact of coalition policies compared with a hypothetical scenario of all the previous Government's policies continued forwards. These previous policies were not affordable.
	The Government routinely informs its decision-making through equality analysis of individual policy changes, as required by the Equality Act. All major welfare reform changes have been accompanied by a published Equality Impact Assessment and these are updated if impacts change.
	On 2 July 2013 the Government published its disability strategy 'Fulfilling Potential—Making it Happen'. Its vision is of a society that enables all disabled people to fulfil their potential and have equal opportunities to realise their aspirations. An outcomes and indicators framework has been put in place to help track progress towards the vision of 'Fulfilling Potential'. This will include publishing annual measures of disabled people's income, compared with that of non-disabled people.
	Disability living allowance data is published via the tabulation tool, which includes data on average amounts. We intend to publish Official Statistics on Personal Independence Payment from spring 2014. The initial release is unlikely to include data on average amounts; this information will be released at a later date. Details of the publication strategy can be found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262511/pip-stats-release-strategy-021213.pdf

Social Security Benefits

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of incapacity benefit and employment and support allowance claimants waited longer than (a) one week, (b) two weeks, (c) three weeks and (d) one month to have their benefit claim processed in each year since 2006.

Esther McVey: The Department does not routinely report the speed of claims clearance in one/two/three week or monthly durations. However, the following extract from the Department's management information system programme (MISP) outlines the percentage of employment support allowance (ESA) claims cleared in five, 10, 16 and 21 days and percentage of incapacity benefit (IB) claims processed in 10 and 40 days for March YTD in each reporting year.
	16 days is the official measure for ESA new claims. The five, 10 and 21 day levels are for internal management information purposes only as were the IB 10 and 40 day levels.
	
		
			 Year end performance 
			  2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Nov 2013 YTD 
			 ESA claims         
			 % processed in 5 days — — 18.2 30.1 41.0 47.1 41.4 48.5 
			 % processed in 10 days — — 48.1 55.0 65.3 70.4 64.9 71.9 
			 % processed in 16 days — — 72.1 72.9 81.0 84.5 83.2 87.6 
			 % processed in 21 days — — 83.4 82.2 88.0 90.3 89.7 92.2 
			          
			 IB claims         
			 % processed in 10 days 54.4 63.5 61.4 62.6 74.6 — — — 
			 % processed in 40 days 92.4 93.4 92.8 85.6 93.1 — — —

Social Security Benefits

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing times were for incapacity benefit claims in (a) each quarter of (i) 2006 and (ii) 2007 and (b) the first two quarters of 2008; and what the average processing times for employment and support allowance were in (1) the second two quarters of 2008 and (2) each subsequent quarter to date.

Esther McVey: The information in response to this PQ is unable to be released. This is because the information has a clerical element which has the potential to be retrospectively changed. Therefore any data may change following its release potentially resulting in reputation embarrassment to the Department. This approach is consistent with previous requests from this data source for this type of information which may be subject to change.

Unemployment: Older Workers

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on training for people over the age of 50 looking for new jobs in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK in the last 12 months for which figures are available.

Esther McVey: The information requested is not available.
	The Department has done away with one size fits all employment programmes. The Work programme offers tailored support to all claimants who are referred to it regardless of their age. Work programme providers look at an individual's specific needs when helping them move either closer to or into employment.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, columns 49-50W, on universal credit, for what reason the estimated annual saving of £1.3 billion differs from the figure of £2.2 billion contained in his Department's Impact Assessment of December 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: The £1.3 billion quoted in the answer of 9 December 2013, reflects our latest estimate of annual savings from reduced fraud, error and overpayments under universal credit, once fully rolled out.
	The December 2012 universal credit impact assessment shows an estimate of £2.2 billion annual savings as a result of reduced fraud, error and overpayments together with changes to the current earnings disregards in tax credits. Hence the two figures are not comparable.
	Our latest estimate that is comparable to the savings stated in the impact assessment is broadly similar, currently at £2.3 billion per annum once universal credit is fully rolled out.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost to his Department of aligning the accounting treatment of profits from self-employment for the purpose of universal credit applications with the treatment of self-employment for tax purposes.

Esther McVey: DWP have worked with HMRC to align the universal credit self-employed earnings reporting requirements as closely as possible with HMRC's new cash basis accounting system for tax self-assessment. This will allow claimants to keep similar accounts for both purposes.
	It is not possible to disaggregate impact of this alignment from the overall costs of self-employment reporting in universal credit.

CABINET OFFICE

Electronic Government

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the use of digital government services by those on the lowest incomes and unemployed.

Nick Hurd: This Government's digital-by-default agenda is designed to ensure we have digital services which are so simple and convenient to use that all those who can use them will choose to do so while those who cannot are not excluded. Our new website, GOV.UK is designed to be accessed from any internet-enabled device.
	In September 2012 the Government digital service conducted the digital landscape research looking at the use of the Internet in the UK—but more specifically to understand more about how people use government digital services and information.
	As part of this research, demographic information was collected that enabled Government to look at the use of digital government services and information including by those who are on low incomes and who are unemployed. The research is published at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-landscape-research/digital-landscape-research

EDUCATION

Adoption

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what support exists for children and adoptive parents post adoption.

Edward Timpson: Adopters are legally entitled to an assessment of their and their adoptive child's needs for adoption support services against categories of support set out in the Adoption Support Services Regulations 2005. This includes assessment of needs for financial support, therapeutic services, advice and guidance and educational support services. Local authorities are under a legal duty to appoint an adoption support advisor to advise about these services. The provision of support to meet these needs is at the discretion of the local authority, taking into account the individual case and local resources.
	The Adoption Passport, published in 2013, provides adoptive parents with information about what they can expect from the range of support services available. Through the Children and Families Bill we put the duty on local authorities to bring this information to the attention of both prospective and approved adopters so that they are fully aware of their entitlements and how they can access local services.
	Children adopted from care are eligible for priority school access and, from 2014, will be eligible for free early education from the age of two and the pupil premium. From 2015, adoptive parents will have the same rights in relation to pay and leave as birth parents. This will include arrangements to entitle them to adoption leave from the day they start a job; enhancing the rate of adoption pay during the first six weeks of adoption; and allowing time off work for introductions to the child prior to placement.
	In September this year we announced the setting-up of the Adoption Support Fund with a contribution of £19.3 million, to help adoptive parents access therapeutic services to meet their children's needs. The fund will be rolled out nationally from 2015 but will be trialled from next year. Through the Children and Families Bill, we are introducing a requirement for local authorities to prepare personal budgets for adopters once the local authority has agreed provide support.

Children: Protection

Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much each local authority spent on child protection services per head of children receiving those services in 2012-13.

Edward Timpson: Local authorities do not provide information in this format, a report from the Audit Commission1 published in November 2013 found that children's social care has been largely protected from spending reductions in each year from 2010-11 to 2013-14. On average, council spending on children's social care increased by 1.5% during 2012-13.
	1http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tough-Times-2013-Councils-Responses-to-Financial-Challenges-w1.pdf

Children: Social Services

Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children are in receipt of social services, by local authority in the latest period for which figures are available.

Edward Timpson: In order for a child to be in receipt of services, a local authority must first assess the child's needs. If following this assessment services are required then the child is described as a ‘child in need’. The numbers of children in need in each local authority in England is published annually in the children in need census:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/characteristics-of-children-in-need-in-england-2012-to-2013

Directors

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what role non-executive members of his Department's board play in directing the work of officials in his Department.

Elizabeth Truss: The work of officials is directed by Ministers and senior officials. Non-executive board members play a key role across Government, offering advice and challenge on the management of departments. They support and challenge the executive on a range of areas, including operational and delivery implications of departmental policy proposals.
	In the Department for Education, non-executives work closely with officials in a support and challenge role. They also play key roles in the formal governance structures, for example, Paul Marshall chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and Theodore Agnew chairs the Performance Committee.

Directors

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what office facilities are provided for non-executive members of his Department's board in his Department's buildings.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education's non-executive board members are frequently in Sanctuary Buildings. We provide meeting rooms, desk space, administrative support and access to office space and office equipment as necessary. The amount of support varies between non-executive board members depending on the amount of time they are able to contribute to departmental business.

Education: Finance

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidance he gives further education colleges on action to take if after intervention from the Education Funding Agency they receive insufficient funding from a local authority for a student with high needs.

David Laws: Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess the education and support needs of young people and secure provision for them. The high needs funding reforms introduced in 2013/14 now give them the responsibility to provide funding to institutions directly in line with their commissioning decisions.
	The Education Funding Agency (EFA) does not have the power to intervene or overturn local authority assessment or commissioning decisions. The EFA provides a responsive and flexible approach to facilitating resolution of issues between institutions and local authorities on a case-by-case basis. Institutions can raise concerns relating to high needs students directly with the EFA, which will support discussions between the local authorities and institutions concerned. We expect local authorities to respond appropriately and constructively to EFA advice.

Education: Finance

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that all local authorities provide sufficient funding to (a) further education, (b) sixth form colleges and (c) specialist colleges that educate 16 to 25 year olds with high needs in 2014-15.

David Laws: We have asked local authorities to work closely with further education, sixth form and specialist colleges in planning provision for 2014-15. The amount of funding allocated to each authority for its pupils and students with high needs will be finalised by March 2014. The conditions of grant attached to these allocations, and guidance from the Education Funding Agency, provide authorities with information about how the funding system for 16 to 25-year-olds should work, but the level of funding for individual students is a matter for local authorities and institutions to discuss and reach agreement.

Education: Finance

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools have raised concerns with (a) his Department and (b) the Education Funding Agency on the amount of funding they have received from local authorities to educate pupils with high needs aged (A) five to 15 and (B) 16 to 25 years.

David Laws: Ministers have responded to 39 letters from Members of Parliament and school representatives, including headteachers, regarding Special Educational Needs funding since April 2013.

English Baccalaureate

Peter Aldous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the proportion of pupils that will sit the EBacc at GCSE in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education has surveyed schools on the effects of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), but has not itself made an estimate or set targets for the proportion of pupils that will sit the EBacc in 2014 and 2015.
	The proportion of pupils entering these core academic subjects has increased significantly since the Government introduced the English Baccalaureate in 2010 and there is no reason that this increase should not continue. According to provisional data, the proportion of pupils entering the EBacc has risen to 35% this year, up from 25% last year.
	Source:
	GCSE and equivalent results in England 2012/13 (provisional) Statistical First Release:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251184/SFR40_2013_FINALv2.pdf

Foster Care

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children are currently being housed with foster parents in (a) Ribble Valley constituency, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education collects information on children looked after by local authorities in England who are placed with an approved foster carer. Information is not available at constituency level or for the United Kingdom as a whole.
	The number of looked-after children in foster care in England and Lancashire local authority at 31 March 2013 was 50,900 and 1,050 respectively.

Internet: Bullying

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent estimate he has made of the number of children who are being cyber-bullied in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education does not routinely collect data on the number of children who are cyberbullied in the UK. However, a number of expert organisations-such as the Diana Award and NSPCC-have undertaken surveys to try to measure this problem. These surveys reveal wide variation in reported incidence, which could be because personal interpretation of what constitutes cyberbullying varies.
	Estimates from an evidence review carried out by the Childhood Wellbeing Centre (at the Institute of Education, University of Kent and Loughborough University) for the Department in 2011, found that between 8% and 34% of children and young people in the UK have been cyberbullied. Evidence from the 2010 Longitudinal Study of 15,000 14 to 16-year-old people in England (LSYPE), which is funded by the Department, found that cyberbullying was the most common form of abuse along with name-calling.
	We are also funding a series of questions about bullying in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 Crime Survey for England and Wales. One of the questions asks 10 to 14-year-olds about whether or not they have experienced cyberbullying in the last 12 months. This will give us a baseline estimate of prevalence and will help us to track trends over time.
	We believe that schools, parents and internet providers all have a role to play in keeping children and young people safe online. Every school must have a behaviour policy, which includes measures to prevent all forms of bullying. Ofsted hold schools to account for how well they do this. Since January 2012, school inspectors have had to consider types, rates and patterns of bullying and the effectiveness of the school's actions to prevent and tackle bullying, including cyberbullying.
	We have given teachers a specific power to search for and, If necessary, delete inappropriate images or files on electronic devices, including mobile phones. From September 2014, pupils in all four key stages will be taught about e-safety as part of the new curriculum. This will empower young people to tackle cyberbullying through responsible, respectful and secure use of technology, as well as ensuring that pupils are taught age-appropriate ways of reporting any concerns they may have about what they see or encounter online.
	The Government expects all social media to have simple mechanisms for reporting abuse, to take action promptly when abuse is reported and to make it easier for users to turn off anonymous posts. The Government has pressed for progress through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). UKCCIS brings together the most important internet organisations, such as Facebook and Microsoft, as well as Ministers, and works to protect children online.
	The Department is also providing £4 million of funding over two years from 2013 to four anti-bullying organisations. These are Beatbullying, the Diana Award, Kidscape and the National Children's Bureau consortium. While this funding has been awarded to specific projects to reduce bullying in general, this can, and does, include work to tackle cyberbullying.

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Elizabeth Truss: Information about ministerial salaries is in the public domain in the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2011. This is available at:
	http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2011/9780111509258/schedule/1

Pre-school Education: Southwark

Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many two year olds in the London Borough of Southwark currently receive free early education.

Elizabeth Truss: Local authorities have been under a statutory duty to secure a place for any eligible two-year-old since 1 September 2013. The London borough of Southwark reported that in October 553 two-year-olds were already in places.
	Formal data on the number of two-year-olds in funded places will be gathered through the Early Years and Schools Censuses, which will take place in January 2014 and will be published in summer 2014.

Public Expenditure

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he plans to close his Department's 2012-13 financial accounts.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education's accounts are now going through the final stages of audit review. Subject to clearance, we would anticipate laying them in mid-January 2014, before the statutory deadline of 30 January 2014.

Teachers: Training

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teacher education places have been allocated by the National College of Teaching and Leadership for (a) each secondary subject and (b) primary phase (i) nationally and (ii) by English region to (A) HE providers, (B) SCITTs, (C) School Direct and (D) salaried School Direct.

David Laws: Management information released on 21 November by the Department for Education provides full details of initial teacher training (ITT) allocations for 2014/15 by lead school and provider1.
	1 Available at:
	http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/xlsx/i/itt%20allocations%20management%20information%2021%2 0nov%202013.xlsx

Youth Custody: Education

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many hours of education or training children receive each week in (a) young offenders institutions and (b) secure training centres.

David Laws: In 2012/13, young people in public sector under-18 Young Offender Institutions received an average of 13 hours of education and training per week, against the contracted minimum of 15-hours per week, for 52 weeks.
	Secure Training Centres are contracted to deliver 25-hours per school week of education and training to their young people. In 2012/13, the average received was 26 hours.
	The Ministry of Justice published a consultation paper earlier this year on Transforming Youth Custody, setting out its vision for putting education at the heart of detention. It will be making announcements about this shortly.

HEALTH

Accident and Emergency Departments: Hampshire

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses worked in NHS accident and emergency departments in (i) Portsmouth South constituency and (ii) Hampshire in each of the last five years.

Daniel Poulter: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.
	
		
			 Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): medical staff in the accident and emergency (A&E) specialty in selected organisations (full-time equivalents as at 30 September each year) 
			  2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 
			 Isle of Wight NHS Primary Care Trust 16 14 14 17 n/a 
			 Isle of Wight NHS Trust 0 0 0 0 17 
			 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust 37 45 49 48 45 
			 Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust 32 34 32 31 34 
			 Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust 15 15 19 19 n/a 
			 Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 16 19 18 19 38 
			 n/a = Not applicable. Notes: 1. The data shown here are for IMHS HCHS doctors recorded as having a specialty of Emergency Medicine. This should capture all those doctors trained in Emergency Medicine but it does not necessarily show where they work. Doctors may also be coded by specialty based on the department where they work. Emergency Medicine is likely therefore to capture all A&E doctors plus some that are employed in Emergency Admission Units, although these are expected to be few. 2. A doctor does not need to be trained in Emergency Medicine to be working in A&E. For example doctors trained in general medicine could be working in A&E and may still be recorded under the specialty they trained in, and therefore not included in the Emergency Medicine doctors shown here. 3. Emergency Medicine is the General Medical Council (Statutory Instrument approved) Main Specialty. It is also currently known as Accident and Emergency within Workforce Data Standards. NHS HCHS Workforce excludes general practitioners, GP practice staff and high street dentists. 4. The Health and Social Care Information Centre seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where changes impact on figures already published, this is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre Medical and Dental Workforce Census

Alcoholic drinks: Young People

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the steering group to reduce the admission of young people with alcohol dependency will next convene.

Jane Ellison: We are not aware of any steering group with the purpose of reducing hospital admissions for young people dependent on alcohol.
	Public Health England (PHE) is developing a model pathway to reduce under 18 year olds’ alcohol-related attendances in accident and emergency departments. PHE has been working with an expert group which has collated sample pathways from all over England. The next meeting will be in early 2014.

Arthritis

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what safeguards are in place to ensure that NHS commissioners comply with guidance on the treatment and care of people with rheumatoid arthritis;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the reasons for variations in the uptake of treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.

Norman Lamb: No recent assessment has been made of the reasons for variations in the uptake of treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
	The Department's Mandate to the national health service set an objective to improve the quality of life for people with long-term conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis. The NHS Outcomes Framework contains the indicators that are used to hold NHS England to account for making progress.
	To support commissioners, in 2009 and 2013 respectively, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its clinical guideline and a quality standard on rheumatoid arthritis. NICE quality standards are a concise set of statements designed to drive and measure priority quality improvements within a particular area of care. They are derived from the best available evidence and set out the markers of high-quality, cost-effective care. NHS England is statutorily required to have regard to NICE quality standards.
	NHS commissioners are legally required by regulations to fund treatments recommended by NICE in its technology appraisal guidance. Patients have a right in the NHS Constitution to access drugs and treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance that their clinicians want to prescribe.

Cancer

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 13 May 2013, Official Report, column 38W, on cancer, what measures the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set 2014/15 will include to drive improvements on five year cancer survival rates.

Jane Ellison: The Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set (CCG OIS) is part of NHS England's systematic approach to promoting quality improvement. Its aim is to support CCGs and health and wellbeing partners in improving outcomes by providing comparative information on the quality of health services commissioned by CCGs and the associated health outcomes.
	NHS England will be publishing the 2014-15 CCG OIS next year, subject to final approval, which will set out measures aimed at supporting improvements in the five-year cancer survival.

Cancer: Older People

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what steps his Department is taking to improve one and five year cancer survival rates for older people;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to reduce the difference between cancer survival rates in the UK and comparable European countries.

Jane Ellison: Our Mandate to NHS England set out an ambition to make England one of the most successful countries in Europe at preventing premature deaths from illnesses like cancer. The NHS Outcomes Framework contains composite indicators on one-year and five-year survival for breast, lung and colorectal cancer, and one and five-year survival rate indicators from all cancers though which improvements in cancer survival will be measured.
	On 10 December 2013, the Department, NHS England and Public Health England (PHE) jointly published the third annual report on the implementation of our Cancer Outcomes Strategy. The strategy set out actions to tackle preventable cancer incidence, improve the quality and efficiency of cancer services; improve patients' experience of care; improve quality of life for cancer survivors; and deliver outcomes that are comparable with the best in Europe. The third annual report sets out progress over the last year, including:
	significant developments in cancer screening - particularly on the first phase of introducing Bowel Scope Screening;
	activity to promote earlier diagnosis of symptomatic cancers, through the Be Clear on Cancer campaigns and the associated work with primary and secondary care;
	progress in ensuring better access for all to the best possible treatment, such improved access to Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy; and
	significant developments in the collection and reporting of new datasets and the analysis of information, to drive improvements and to inform patients.
	The report highlights the findings of The Cancer Services Coming of Age report; a £1 million project to improve cancer care for older people, undertaken by the Department, Macmillan Cancer Support and Age UK.
	The project involved a series of pilots that tested whether appropriate assessment of older cancer patients would result in improved access to appropriate cancer treatment, based on need and not age. They also tested whether action, as a result of an age appropriate assessment, improved the scope for older people to benefit from treatment.
	The Coming of Age report, aimed at commissioners, commissioning support units and providers makes key recommendations as to how services might be developed and offers to increase older people's survival rates and improve their quality of life, by better meeting their needs, more fully and involve them in decision making. It will also help services to fulfil their new equalities duties regarding the Equality Act 2010, which was extended to public services in 2012.
	Furthermore, following successful local and regional pilots, early in 2014, PHE in partnership with the Department and NHS England (including NHS Improving Quality) will run a national Be Clear on Cancer breast cancer campaign for women over 70 and their influences to encourage women with symptoms to visit their general practitioners’. The campaign will run from 3 February to 16 March 2014 and will include television, press, direct mail and out-of-home media advertising. The key message is: ‘one in three women who get breast cancer are over 70, so don't assume you are past it.’
	We have also committed over £170 million over this spending review period to expand and improve our cancer screening programmes, including extending the age range for the NHS Bowel Screening programme to men and women up to their 75th birthday (men and women over this age can self-refer) and undertaking the NHS Breast Screening programme aged extension randomisation trial (including inviting women aged 71-73).

Care Homes

William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent meetings he has held with his counterparts in the devolved administrations on best practice in care homes throughout the UK.

Norman Lamb: The Department's Ministers have not met with their counterparts in the devolved Administrations to discuss best practice in care homes recently.
	However, officials of the Department meet annually with representatives of the devolved Administrations and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to investigate what can be learned from best practice in other parts of the United Kingdom and to discuss collaborating on projects to gain value for money for service users. SCIE's remit is United Kingdom-wide.

Deloitte

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library copies of correspondence between Peter Coates and Deloitte MCS Limited on 5 February and 10 February 2010.

Jane Ellison: The Department has received a Freedom of Information requesting this information, which it is considering and will respond to it within 20 working days.

Diabetes

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment his Department has made of the provision of insulin pumps for (a) adults and (b) children in each of the Clinical Commissioning Group areas in England in the last 12 months;
	(2)  if he will conduct an audit of insulin pump provision;
	(3)  what assessment he has made of the findings of the National Diabetes Audit on the number of sufferers with type 1 diabetes who are offered a place on a structured education course in the last year.

Jane Ellison: The Secretary of State has made no assessment of the provision of insulin pumps for adults and children in each of the clinical commissioning group areas in England in the last 12 months and has no plans to conduct an audit of insulin pump provision. The United Kingdom Insulin Pump Audit published in May 2013 demonstrated that 6% of adults with type 1 diabetes and 19% of children with type 1 diabetes are now treated with insulin pumps.
	The Department is aware that the National Diabetes Audit found that very few people with diabetes are offered a place on a structured education course in the last year. These are all matters for NHS England to consider as it has responsibility for determining the overall national approach to improve clinical outcomes from health care services for people with diabetes.
	The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends insulin pump therapy as an option for adults and children over the age of 12 years with type 1 diabetes, provided that multiple-daily insulin therapy has failed. It also recommends that insulin pump therapy can be used for children younger then 12 years with type 1 diabetes, provided specific criteria are met. Health and care professionals are expected to take NICE guidance on the treatment of relevant conditions fully into account when deciding how to treat a patient.
	The NICE Quality Standard for diabetes, published in July 2011, sets out that people with diabetes should receive a structured educational programme. NHS England is statutorily required to have regard to NICE quality standards.
	NHS England has said that one of its major priorities is for patients with type 1 diabetes to achieve patient empowerment and self-care through education, as for all patients with long-term conditions. As of 1 April this year, NHS England can use the following to promote provision of structured education for those with type 1 diabetes:
	a new Quality Outcomes Frame work indicator has been introduced, incentivising provision of structured education within nine months of first diagnosis; and
	if someone with type 1 diabetes is admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis, a new best practice tariff rewards the provision of structured education within three months of hospital discharge.

General Practitioners

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what 24 hour GP services operate in (a) England, (b) Greater London and (c) the London Borough of Southwark.

Norman Lamb: The requested information is not held centrally.
	Under the terms of their contract with NHS England, all general practitioner (GP) practices are responsible for the provision of GP services to their patients 24 hours a day. However, they are able to opt out of providing services outside of core hours if they wish. In these circumstances, it is the responsibility, of NHS England, delegated to clinical commissioning groups, to ensure patients have access to primary medical services during the out of hours period.

Health: Screening

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that every man has a health MOT with his GP between the ages of 40 and 50.

Jane Ellison: Men aged between 40 and 74 who have not been diagnosed with an existing vascular disease or are being treated for certain risk factors should be offered an NHS Health Check every five years. The NHS Health Check is a risk assessment and risk management programme, commissioned by local authorities, aimed at preventing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. Every individual attending an NHS Health Check receives a personal assessment, setting out their level of risk and exactly what they can do to reduce it and where necessary, is referred to their general practitioner for further tests or treatment.

Hospital Beds

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the effects of reductions in local authority budgets on bed blocking in NHS hospitals.

Norman Lamb: In October 2013 there were 123,808 total delayed days, of which 78,424 were in the acute sector. Overall, 26% of the delayed days were attributable to local authority social care and 6% where both local authorities and the national health service were jointly responsible.
	In 2012-13, the most recent year for which we have complete information, there were 37,473 fewer days lost due to delays attributable to local authority adult social care compared to the previous year, of which 1,251 fewer days were in the acute sector and 36,222 fewer days in the non-acute sector.
	Local public sector bodies are responsible for setting their own budgets to meet the needs of the local population. Encouraging and helping to facilitate better, more joined-up health and social care is a major priority for the Government. In 2013-14 the NHS will provide £0.9 billion to support social care services, rising to £1.1 billion in 2015-16. In 2015-16 we will introduce a £3.8 billion pooled budget for better care, so that people get the care they need when and where they need it-this means local NHS organisations and local authorities will need to have joint plans in place from April 2014 to drive improvements in 2014-15.

Hospitals: North West

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for reconfiguration of acute hospital trusts providing healthcare to the populations of north Cheshire and south Merseyside.

Jane Ellison: Decisions about the configuration of local health services are a matter for the national health service locally.

Meningitis: Vaccination

Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits of dispensing Bexsero under general prescription.

Jane Ellison: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the independent expert committee that advises the Government on matters of immunisation, published an interim position statement on the use of Meningitis B vaccine (Bexsero) on 24 July for consultation with key stakeholders. Following consultation, JCVI announced on 25 October that it had requested further analyses to be undertaken in the light of new or recently published evidence submitted.
	JCVI will finalise its advice in the new year, and until then, it will be premature to make any assessment of the potential benefits of dispensing Bexsero under general prescription.

MMR Vaccine

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of people between 10 and 16 years old had received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine as at 31 May 2013.

Jane Ellison: The national measles mumps rubella (MMR) catch up programme for 10-16 year olds was launched in April 2013. MMR coverage is routinely collected at two and five years. Baseline coverage for children aged 10-16 years was estimated from annual coverage data at five years collected between 2002 and 2008 and adjusted for any MMR vaccination received subsequently. This provided a baseline estimate of between 92 and 93% in April 2013. Preliminary data until the end of May 2013 based on a proportion of practices, estimates that the percentage of 10-16 year olds with no record of having received MMR reduced by around 1.3%1.
	Public Health England is undertaking an audit to assess what proportion of 10-16 year olds recorded as unvaccinated for MMR on local Child Health Information Systems have a record of vaccination with their general practice. This audit will provide an estimate of coverage as at August 2013.
	1 Health Protection Report. Volume 7 Number 28. Published on: 12 July 2013. Available at:
	www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/archives/2013/hpr2813.pdf

NHS Property Services

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedure will be used to appoint a new chairman of NHS Property Services.

Jane Ellison: NHS Property Services Ltd is running a recruitment process to appoint a new chairman. The role was advertised in The Sunday Times on 15 December, with a closing date of 6 January 2014.

NHS Trust Development Authority

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff are employed by the NHS Trust Development Authority; which external consultants the NHS Trust Development Authority employs; and at what cost such staff are employed.

Jane Ellison: At 30 November 2013 the NHS Trust Development Authority (NTDA) employed 203 staff.
	The NTDA engages external contractors to provide support for specific work projects and programmes to deliver the corporate objectives and support to national health service trusts. For the period 1 April to 30 November 2013 the NTDA has contracted with 16 contractors or specialist firms at a total cost of £825,000.
	The names of the 16 contractors are:
	Ernst and Young LLP
	Deloitte
	Gareth Cruddace Limited
	Buckley Gray Consultancy
	IMAS
	RJC Financial Solutions Ltd
	Carnall Farrar LLP
	Odgers Interim
	Foxwell Associates Ltd
	Hays Specialist Recruitment Ltd
	Karen Campion
	Allen Lane Ltd
	Change-FX OD Ltd
	Heather Lawrence Consulting
	The Dearden Partnership LLP
	DC Health Limited

NHS: Crime Prevention

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding has been allocated to NHS Protect in each year since 2005.

Daniel Poulter: NHS Protect has a broad security management remit and is the unit that leads work to tackle crime in the national health service.
	The NHS Protect operating budget in each year since 2005-06, net of NHS Business Services Authority corporate costs, is shown in the following table:
	
		
			  Cost (£ million) 
			 2005-06 16.273 
			 2006-07 16.288 
			 2007-08 13.464 
			 2008-09 13.379 
			 2009-10 13.439 
			 2010-11 12.121 
			 2011-12 11.381 
			 2012-13 11.381 
			 2013-14 11.381

NHS: Ministers of Religion

Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital chaplains were working in the NHS in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb: From April 2013, the commissioning of healthcare chaplaincy became the responsibility of NHS England.
	The Department (prior to April 2013) and NHS England (post April 2013) does not collect information on national health service chaplaincy positions centrally as these positions are locally determined by each individual trust.
	Local NHS trusts are responsible for determining, delivering and funding religious and spiritual care in a way that meets the needs of their patients, carers and staff. Unlike prisons and the armed services, there is no statutory requirement for hospitals to provide chaplaincy services. However, healthcare chaplaincy has been part of the services available to patients since the inception of the NHS.

Nurses: Pay

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the rate of pay is of each grade of nurse working in (a) administration, (b) education and (c) clinical care in (i) England and (ii) Greater London; and how many nurses were working in each such grade at the latest date for which figures are available.

Daniel Poulter: Information is not available on how many qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff work in administration, education and clinical care. Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff working in Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) are employed on Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions. This is the national pay framework for NHS staff other than very senior managers and medical staff. Within this pay framework nurses can be employed across a range of pay bands. Nurses employed by general practices are not employed on national terms and conditions.
	The following table sets out the AfC pay bands and pay ranges and the full-time equivalent number of HCHS qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff working in each for (i) England and (ii) the Health Education England London areas as at 31 August 2013. This does not cover nurses employed by general practitioner practices.
	
		
			 AfC band Pay range England Of which: London1 
			 Band 5 £21,388 to £27,901 146,756 21,396 
			 Band 6 £25,783 to £34,530 94,383 17,644 
			 Band 7 £30,764 to £40,558 49,389 9,840 
			 Band 8a £39,239 to £47,088 9,426 2,132 
			 Band 8b £45,707 to £56,504 2,623 603 
			 Band 8c £54,998 to £67,805 852 272 
			 Band 8d £65,922 to £81,618 231 54 
			 Band 9 £77,850 to £98,453 45 19 
			 Unknown — 2,144 52 
			 Notes: 1. It is impossible to separate monthly work force nursing figures between administration, education and clinical care. All levels and areas of work are included in the figures. 2. AfC pay band data are not intended for general publication. There is no direct systematic link between pay band and occupation code within the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system from which these data are derived. Though we work with individual organisations to try and remove such data quality issues the figures should be viewed as an estimate, rather than an exact accounting standard. 3. London area figures are an aggregate of the Health Education North West London, Health Education South London and Health Education North Central and East London areas. 4. Full-time equivalent figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. 5. Monthly data: As from 21 July 2010 the Health and Social Care Information Centre has published provisional monthly NHS work force data. As expected with provisional statistics, some figures may be revised from month to month as issues are uncovered and resolved. The monthly work force data are not directly comparable with the annual work force census; they only include those staff on the ESR (i.e. they do not include primary care staff or bank staff). There are also new methods of presenting data (headcount methodology is different and there is now a role count). This information is available from September 2009 onwards at the following website: www.hscic.gov.uk 6. Data Quality: The Health and Social Care Information Centre seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality where changes impact on figures already published. This is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre Provisional Monthly Workforce Statistics

Osteoporosis

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what proportion of fractures by (a) men and (b) women aged 50 or over of the (i) hip, (ii) wrist, (iii) vertebra, (iv) femur, (v) neck and (vi) knee can be attributed to osteoporosis in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many (a) men and (b) women aged 50 or over have broken a (i) hip, (ii) wrist, (iii) vertebra, (iv) femur, (v) neck and (vi) knee in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Norman Lamb: This information is not available in the format requested. In the following tables we have provided a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fractures attributable to osteoporosis by men and women aged 50 or above, for the years 2003-04 to 2012-13.
	We have also provided a count of FAEs for men and women aged 50 and over with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fracture of a hip, wrist, vertebra, femur, neck and knee for the years 2003-04 to 2012-13. We have also included FAEs for men and women aged 50 and over with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fracture of the lower arm. This is because coding advice for wrist fracture is difficult to interpret. There are several bones in the wrist itself, and there are the ulna and radius bones which extend from the wrist to the elbow. Common understanding of wrist fracture would include fractures to the ulna or radius close to the wrist, but we cannot identify where on the bone the fracture occurred, only the bone itself.
	This data is limited to admitted patient care, some of these types of fracture are likely to be dealt with in accident and emergency or another healthcare setting.
	FAEs are not a count of patients because a patient may have had more than one episode of care within the time period.
	FAEs with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fractures attributable to osteoporosis by men and women aged 50 or above, for the years 2003-04 to 2012-13.
	
		
			  Men Women 
			 2003-04 6,299 9,856 
			 2004-05 5,829 9,690 
			 2005-06 5,804 9,885 
			 2006-07 5,780 9,857 
			 2007-08 6,602 10,931 
			 2008-09 2,251 7,892 
			 2009-10 3,102 9,639 
			 2010-11 3,137 10,710 
			 2011-12 3,082 11,142 
			 2012-13 3,291 10,768 
		
	
	
		
			 FAEs for men and women aged 50 and over with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fracture of a hip, wrist, vertebra, femur, neck and knee and lower arm for the years 2003-04 to 2012-13 
			  Fracture of hip Fracture of wrist Fracture of vertebra Fracture of femur Fracture of neck Fracture of knee Fracture of lower arm 
			  Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female 
			 2003-04 10,673 37,898 140 209 2,240 2,774 15,543 54,484 691 595 649 1,539 2,505 14,928 
			 2004-05 10,898 37,685 163 254 2,454 3,052 15,784 54,556 775 694 614 1,544 2,623 15,391 
			 2005-06 11,835 38,148 196 276 2,793 3,420 17,367 55,271 957 787 677 1,615 2,820 16,932 
			 2006-07 12,039 37,367 213 302 2,936 3,665 17,455 54,630 980 946 676 1,589 2,956 17,611 
			 2007-08 12,357 37,766 210 282 3,340 4,119 18,087 55,153 1,150 1,099 665 1,699 3,045 18,850 
			 2008-09 12,932 37,260 233 346 3,569 4,380 18,929 54,901 1,256 1,133 707 1,653 3,435 20,685 
			 2009-10 13,722 37,437 315 348 4,206 5,333 20,268 56,138 1,431 1,413 758 1,755 4,171 23,361 
			 2010-11 13,690 36,653 300 362 4,643 5,713 20,572 56,179 1,624 1,636 737 1,720 3,967 22,794 
			 2011-12 13,325 36,926 269 385 5,237 6,684 20,482 57,274 1,855 1,892 701 1,726 3,672 20,936 
			 2012-13 13,928 35,653 286 404 5,628 7,344 21,526 56,426 2,018 1,935 691 1,645 3,718 21,262

Pregnancy: Mental Illness

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what progress has been made on improving the prevention and detection of perinatal mental health issues;
	(2)  how much funding each NHS Trust and Foundation Trust has (a) allocated and (b) been spent on perinatal mental health services in the last five years.

Daniel Poulter: Improving diagnosis and services for women with pregnancy-related mental health problems is one of the Department's objectives for maternity care.
	The Mandate from the Government to NHS England includes an objective for NHS England to work with partner organisations to reduce the incidence and impact of post-natal depression through earlier diagnosis, and better intervention and support.
	Health Education England currently commissions approximately 2,500 training places each year and, working with NHS England, is committed to ensuring that sufficient midwives are trained and available, with an ambition to provide every woman with personalised one-to-one care through pregnancy, childbirth and during the post-natal period. This work will make recommendations on how women who have mental health support requirements receive appropriate support from specialised trained midwives.
	Health Education England has also agreed to work with partners to ensure that pre and post registration training in perinatal mental health is available to enable specialist staff for every birthing unit by 2017.
	The Institute of Health Visiting has delivered perinatal mental health training and introduced three interactive e-learning modules. This new resource will help health visitors in the detection and management of perinatal depression and other maternal mental health conditions. The modules focus on perinatal depression and other maternal mental health disorders, how to recognise perinatal anxiety and depression, interventions for perinatal anxiety, depression and related disorders.
	To achieve this, we are committed to having an extra 4,200 health visitors in post by 2015. The maternal mental health pathway, a guide to support professionals to develop indicators and ways of measuring outcomes to access improvement, sets out the benefits and principles for health visitors, midwives, specialist mental health services and general practitioners working together in pregnancy and the first post-natal year, as the basis for the detailed local pathway to meet the physical and mental health and wellbeing needs of parents, babies and families.
	The Department has commissioned the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford university to develop and test a perinatal mental health indicator which would reflect the mental health care a woman receives at certain critical perinatal time points: the antenatal booking, the early postnatal period and approximately one year post-natally. The project will run from April 2013 until December 2015 and the ambition is to have a maternal mental health indicator in the 2016 re-fresh of the Public Health Outcomes Framework.
	Information on how much funding each NHS trust and foundation trust has allocated and been spent on perinatal mental health services in the last five years is not available centrally.

Young Offenders: Mental Illness

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of children in youth offender institutions suffer from mental health disorders.

Norman Lamb: This information is not collected by the Department or NHS England. However, the Youth Justice Board commissioned a 2005 study by Richard Harrington, Sue Bailey and others which showed that 31% of young people aged between 13 and 18 years and who had committed an offence also had a mental health need.
	A copy of this report, “Mental Health Needs and Effectiveness of Provision for Young Offenders in Custody and in the Community” has been placed in the Library.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION COMMITTEE

Elections: Voting Behaviour

Nigel Evans: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the turnout was in the most recent (a) general and (b) local elections in (i) Ribble Valley constituency, (ii) Lancashire and (iii) the UK.

Gary Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that turnout in the Ribble Valley constituency at the May 2010 UK parliamentary general election was 67.3%. Across the 16 constituencies in Lancashire turnout was 64.7%. Overall UK-wide turnout was 65.3%.
	At the local government elections in May 2011, the turnout for Ribble Valley borough council was 45.0%. Across the local authorities in Lancashire turnout was 41.2%. Overall, in England turnout was 42.0% and in Northern Ireland it was 55.7%.
	At the May 2013 county council elections, turnout was 28.3% for the Ribble Valley borough council area, 31.3% in Lancashire and 30.8% across all county councils in England.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change

Peter Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the evidential basis is for his Department's statement that scientific evidence shows that extreme weather events are most certainly intensifying.

Gregory Barker: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) recently published Working Group I contribution to its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)1 shows there is growing evidence that some types of extreme weather events are intensifying.
	The AR5 report concludes that since the mid-2001 century it is very likely that the frequency and/or duration of heat waves have likely increased in large parts of Europe, Asia and Australia, there are likely more land regions where the number of heavy precipitation events has increased than where it has decreased, and the frequency or intensity of heavy precipitation events has likely increased in North America and Europe. The AR5 report also concludes that it is virtually certain there have been increases in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic, since 1970. Lack of data or studies limits the ability to draw conclusions on how the intensity of some types of extreme weather events has changed in other regions.
	A number of recent studies have shown increased risk of certain extreme weather events happening as a result of climate change due to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions2, 3. The AR5 report concludes it is likely that human influence has more than doubled the probability of occurrence of some observed heat waves in some locations.
	1 IPCC, 2013: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. See Table SPM.1.
	http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/
	2 Peterson et al (Eds) 2013. Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective. Special Supplement to the Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc, 94 (9), S1-S74.
	http://www.ametsoc.org/2012extremeeventsclimate.pdf
	3 Peterson, T.C., Stott, P. A., Herring, S. (Eds) 2012. Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc, 93, 1041-1067. doi:
	http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00021.1

Energy

Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the potential amount of investment arising from implementation of the provisions in the Energy Bill.

Gregory Barker: As set out in the impact assessment for the draft Electricity Market Reform Delivery Plan published in July 2013, it is estimated that current proposals will help to support investment in the electricity sector (covering both generation and networks infrastructure) worth £100-110 billion between now and 2020.
	A revised investment estimate will be included as part of the impact assessment for the final Electricity Market Reform Delivery Plan, which will be published later this month.

Energy Companies Obligation

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the amount by which energy companies' spending on people in fuel poverty will change over the course of the current Parliament as a result of the changes to the Energy Companies Obligation announced in the Autumn Statement.

Gregory Barker: The targets for the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) are set in output terms, rather than financial terms. In terms of the elements of ECO directed at fuel poverty—Affordable Warmth (AW) and Carbon Saving Communities (CSCO—the output targets for the end of March 2015 will not change. The carbon target under CSCO will remain at 6.8MTC02 and the notional bill savings target for AW will stay at £4.2 billion. We expect this to translate into support for 230,000 low income households per year. Next year we will consult on setting new targets pro rata for the period 2015-17.

Energy Companies Obligation

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the average household fuel poverty gap was for the most recent period for which figures are available; and whether he expects this to increase following the changes to the Energy Companies Obligation announced in the Autumn Statement.

Gregory Barker: The average fuel poverty gap in 2011 was £438 (2011 prices).
	It is not easy to isolate the impact of a given policy on levels of fuel poverty and future fuel poverty gap figures will reflect wider changes in energy prices and bills, household incomes and energy efficiency levels. However, the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) changes we will consult on next year could be expected, on their own, to lower the average fuel poverty gap since the support directed at the fuel poor will continue and typical energy bills will be lower than they would otherwise have been.

Energy: Billing

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his statement of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 628, on energy bills, (a) when and (b) how the £12 rebate to domestic electricity customers will be paid.

Gregory Barker: Subject to consultation, we are proposing that all licensed electricity suppliers will apply the £12 rebate directly to the accounts of GB domestic electricity customers. We expect the first of two annual rebates to be paid in autumn 2014.

Energy: Company Accounts

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the statement of 31 October 2013, Official Report, column 1096, on Annual Energy Statement, what the terms of reference of the report on the transparency of the financial accounts of the energy companies are; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon: holding answer 16 December 2013
	The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), has asked Ofgem to deliver, by spring 2014, a full report on the transparency of financial accounts of the energy companies and ways this could be improved. The exact terms of reference for the report are a matter for Ofgem.

Energy: Competition

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the market share of (a) British Gas, (b) E.ON, (c) EDF, (d) RWE npower, (e) SSE and (f) Scottish Power in the domestic (i) electricity and (ii) gas supply market in each of the last 10 years.

Michael Fallon: holding answer 16 December 2013
	DECC publish aggregate statistics regarding the domestic market, but do not publish company specific market share information.
	Such data are published annually by Ofgem in their National Report to the European Commission. The latest version is available at:
	https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/2013-national-report-european-commission

Energy: Competition

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the statement of 31 October 2013, Official Report, column 1095, if he will publish the terms of reference of the annual review of the state of competition in the energy markets.

Michael Fallon: holding answer 16 December 2013
	The Annual Competition Assessment is being prepared by the independent regulator, Ofgem, in conjunction with the Office for Fair Trading (OFT), and the framework will be published by them on 19 December.

Energy: Competition

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the statement of 31 October 2013, Official Report, column 1095, on Annual Energy Statement, by what criteria he will assess the state of competition in the energy markets.

Michael Fallon: The Annual Competition Assessment is being prepared by the independent regulator, Ofgem, in conjunction with the Office for Fair Trading (OFT). The criteria for the assessment will be set by the independent regulators, and the framework will be published on 19 December.

Energy: Conservation

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to paragraph 1.261 of the autumn statement, what new incentives will be in the schemes to support the take-up of energy efficiency measures.

Gregory Barker: In the autumn statement, we announced new schemes worth £540 million over three years to incentivise energy efficiency for home-movers, landlords and public sector buildings. We are currently working on the details of the schemes. More details will be announced early in the new year.

Energy: Prices

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 28 November 2013, Official Report, column 385, on decarbonisation, what estimate his Department has made of the difference in cost to consumers of setting a decarbonisation target in (a) 2014 and (b) 2016.

Gregory Barker: The Government has maintained the view that the right time to conduct a detailed analysis to understand the impacts of setting a decarbonisation target is at the same time as setting the 5th Carbon Budget, which is in 2016. This analysis will include the likely impacts to consumer bills. This approach is in line with the Government's decarbonisation provisions that are included within the Energy Bill.

Energy: Prices

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his statement of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 628, on energy bills, what the evidential basis is for the statement that changes to the energy company obligation will result in a reduction in bills of between £30 and £35.

Gregory Barker: The Government has previously modelled and estimated the costs to energy suppliers of delivering the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme to be around £1.3 billion per year, or around £50 of the typical domestic dual fuel bill. However, energy suppliers make their own assumptions about the costs of delivery which they rely on when making pricing decisions. The £30 to £35 cut in bills from proposed changes to ECO is an estimate of the savings that companies have indicated they will be able to make. DECC will publish an analytical assessment alongside the consultation on the proposed changes to the scheme.

Energy: Prices

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his statement of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 631, on energy bills, when his Department will publish the (a) consultation paper and (b) impact assessment on the proposed changes to the energy company obligation.

Gregory Barker: The Department will publish its consultation on the proposed changes to the Energy Company Obligation, including economic analysis of their potential impact, in the first quarter of 2014.

Energy: Prices

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, column 13W, on energy: prices, for what reasons he has not held any meeting where he has asked energy companies to lower or not increase their prices.

Michael Fallon: In a competitive market, it would not be appropriate for Ministers to dictate pricing strategies to energy companies. DECC has received representations to introduce such a policy of price fixing. This would result in higher prices for consumers before and after a freeze and damage investment. Therefore we have rejected these representations.

Energy: Prices

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, column 13W, on energy: prices, how many meetings he had with the big six energy companies in November 2013.

Michael Fallon: The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), met officials from big six energy companies on three separate occasions during November.

Energy: Prices

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, column 13W, on energy: prices, what estimate he has made of the cost of providing the information requested on the dates of meetings.

Michael Fallon: The cost of providing a full answer would have been over the threshold of £850 set out in Cabinet Office guidelines.

Fuel Poverty

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the number of pre-payment energy customers who are in fuel poverty.

Gregory Barker: DECC have recently announced the intention to adopt the new Low Income High Costs (LIHC) indicator, to measure fuel poverty, based on the recommendations from Professor Hills' independent review.
	The number of households in fuel poverty under the LIHC indicator in England in 2011 who used pre-payment for gas and electricity is as follows:
	
		
			  Number of households in fuel poverty (thousand) 
			 Electricity 592 
			 Gas 467

Fuel Poverty

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of off-grid gas households who are in fuel poverty.

Gregory Barker: DECC have recently announced the intention to adopt the new Low Income High Costs (LIHC) indicator to measure fuel poverty, based on the recommendations from Professor Hills' independent review.
	The number and proportion of households in fuel poverty under the LIHC indicator in England in 2011 who are off gas grid is as follows:
	
		
			  Number of households in fuel poverty (thousand) Percentage of all fuel poor households that are in this group 
			 Not on gas grid 451 18.9 
			 On gas grid 1,939 81.1

Fuel Poverty

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the total spend on fuel poverty measures will be for 2013 compared to each of the last five years.

Gregory Barker: Detailed information on spending from 2008-09 to 2012-13 on fuel poverty under Warm Front, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target, the Community Energy Saving programme, the Warm Home Discount and the predecessor voluntary scheme has already been provided in response to written questions. For example, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) on 1 July 2013, Official Report, column 422W.
	The maximum spending obligation in 2013-14 under the Warm Home Discount, as set out in regulations, is £300 million. Requirements on energy companies under the new energy companies obligation are set in output, rather than spending, terms. In the original ECO impact assessment, we estimated average annual spending directed at fuel poverty through Affordable Warmth and Carbon Saving Communities to be £540 million for the period to 2015.

Insulation

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his statement of 2 December 2013, Official Report, column 635, on energy bills, what estimate his Department has made of the likely reductions in solid wall insulations as a result of the proposed change to the energy company obligation.

Gregory Barker: The Department will publish its consultation on the proposed changes to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), including economic analysis of their potential impact, in the first quarter of 2014. The proposed changes to the ECO will oblige energy companies to provide a minimum number of homes with solid wall insulation. This will give certainty to this industry, allowing it to invest for the future.

Ministers

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much was spent on ministerial salaries in the last year for which figures are available.

Gregory Barker: Details of the Department of Energy and Climate Change's ministerial salaries can be found in the Department's annual report and accounts 2012-13 (HC 18) Page 220:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/209325/9589-TSO-DECC_AR-2012-13_Accessible.pdf

Renewable Energy

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his answer of 28 November 2013, Official Report, column 386, on decarbonisation, what the evidential basis is for the statement that £31 billion has been invested in renewable electricity since 2010.

Gregory Barker: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 18 November 2013, Official Report, column 725-726W.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of how many people are eligible for the Warm Home discount core group rebate in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

Gregory Barker: This winter, a total of 1,161,938 people were eligible to receive the £135 Warm Home Discount Core Group rebate automatically by 31 December. This is as a result of data matching between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and participating energy suppliers.
	A total of 306,271 customers who received the qualifying benefit but whose data were not matched between DWP and energy suppliers, were sent a letter asking them to contact a dedicated call centre to provide further information. Based on our experience from previous years, we estimate approximately 76,000 of those customers will receive the £135 rebate. Many of the remaining customers will not have met the scheme's eligibility criteria.
	We will estimate the number of Core Group rebates for 2014-15 by 14 February 2014 in order to notify Ofgem of the non-core spending obligation for that year.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will require all electricity suppliers to pay the Warm Home discount in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

Gregory Barker: The Warm Home Discount Regulations 2011 govern the operation of the scheme. Under these regulations, participation is compulsory for all electricity suppliers who have at least 250,000 domestic customers on 31 December preceding each scheme year. This rule will apply for the 2014-15 scheme year (Year 4).
	New regulations will be needed for the 2015-16 scheme year, for which the Government has already announced a £320 million budget. We will consult on the details of how the scheme should operate in 2014. We expect to invite views on the participation threshold as part of that consultation exercise.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the number of customers eligible for the Warm Home discount who are not customers of suppliers who participate in the scheme.

Gregory Barker: There are two broad eligibility rules for receipt of the Warm Home Discount:
	(i) Customers need to be electricity account holders with a participating supplier;
	(ii) Customers need to be in receipt of certain passport benefits or in a group that is at risk of being in fuel poverty.
	In December 2012, the seven suppliers participating in the Warm Home Discount accounted for over 98% of the domestic market. The details are set out at:
	https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/2013-national-report-european-commission
	We do not have data relating to the number of customers of non-participating suppliers who would meet the second eligibility criterion.

JUSTICE

Direct Selling

Steve Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to tackle rogue PPI claim companies and nuisance calling by those companies.

Shailesh Vara: Our priority is to protect the public by rooting out and punishing bad practices by claims companies. The Claims Management Regulator is expanding its resources, consulting on a new set of toughened rules to crack down on abuses and later next year, claims companies will face fines for rule breaches.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for the future of HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Shailesh Vara: On 26 March 2013, Official Report, columns 94-95WS, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), made a written ministerial statement setting out that he had asked the Department to look at the way we deliver our court and tribunals services to ensure access to justice is quick and effective while providing value for money for the taxpayer. We will, of course, update Parliament in due course when proposals have been developed.

Offenders: Rehabilitation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  when he expects to sign contracts with the community rehabilitation companies;
	(2)  when he expects community rehabilitation companies to take over responsibility for supervision of low and medium-risk offenders.

Jeremy Wright: On 19 September the Ministry of Justice launched its competition to find the future owners of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) who will deliver rehabilitation services in England and Wales as set out in the Government's Transforming Rehabilitation Strategy.
	The Transforming Rehabilitation competition will continue through 2014 with contracts being awarded and mobilised by 2015.

Rape: Victim Support Schemes

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what services have received Government funding for rape crisis centres and helplines (a) nationally and (b) in each region in each year since 2010.

Damian Green: The Government is committed to supporting victims of rape and sexual abuse. In 2011 the Ministry of Justice launched the Rape Support Fund (2011-14) which has provided nearly £4 million per year to support 77 rape support centres, including 13 new and emerging rape support centres in areas of need, with a further two new centres planned for 2014-15. This is part of the coalition commitment to provide stable funding for rape support centres as part of the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy.
	The Ministry of Justice does not currently specifically fund any telephone helplines for victims of rape and sexual violence.
	The rape support centres who have benefitted from the Combined Fund—Sexual Violence (2010-11) and/or the Rape Support Fund (2011-14) are listed in the following table:
	
		
			  Combined Fund (Sexual Violence) 2010-11 Rape Support Fund 2011-13 
			 Avon and Somerset Womankind—Bristol Bristol Rape Crisis 
			  Women's Therapy Centre Bristol and NE Somerset Rape Crisis (2013-16) 
			  One25  
			    
			 Bedfordshire — Luton Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Cambridgeshire Cambridge Rape Crisis Cambridge Rape Crisis 
			  — Peterborough Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Cheshire Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (Cheshire and Merseyside) Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (Cheshire and Merseyside) 
			  — Chester Sexual Violence Support Service 
			    
			 Cleveland ARCH North East (Women's Support Network) ARCH North East (Women's Support Network) 
			  EVA Women's Aid — 
			    
			 Cumbria South Cumbria Rape and Abuse Service The Birchall Trust 
			  — West Cumbria Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Derbyshire Safe and Sound Derby Derbyshire Rape Crisis 
			  Sexual Abuse and Incest Line — 
			    
			 Devon and Cornwall Twelves Company Twelves Company 
			  Cornwall Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Cornwall Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre 
			  SALT South West Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre 
			  — Devon Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Dorset — Dorset Rape Support Centre 
			    
			 Durham Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (Darlington and County Durham) Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (Darlington and County Durham) 
			    
			 Dyfed Powys New Pathways New Pathways 
			  — Mid Wales RASASC (2012-15) 
			    
			 Essex — South Essex Rape and Incest Counselling Centre 
			  — Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse 
			  — Southend On Sea Rape Crisis (2012-15) 
			    
			 Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Rape Crisis Gloucestershire Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Greater Manchester Manchester Rape Crisis Manchester Rape Crisis 
			  — Trafford Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Gwent New Pathways New Pathways 
			  — Mid Wales RASASC (2012-15) 
		
	
	
		
			 Hampshire Southampton Rape Crisis Southampton Rape Crisis 
			  Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Winchester Portsmouth Area Rape Crisis 
			  CIS'ters Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Winchester 
			  — Basingstoke Rape and Sexual Abuse Crisis Centre 
			    
			 Hertfordshire — Watford Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Humberside — Survivors (Hull and East Riding) 
			  — Hull Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Kent — Family Matters 
			  — East Kent Rape Line 
			    
			 Lancashire — The Birchall Trust 
			  — Central Lancashire Rape Support Centre (2013-16) 
			    
			 Leicestershire — Leicester Rape Crisis 
			    
			 Lincolnshire Grimsby and Scunthorpe Rape Crisis Grimsby and Scunthorpe Rape Crisis 
			  — Lincolnshire Rape Crisis (2013-16) 
			    
			 London Croydon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre Croydon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre 
			  Survivors UK Women and Girls Network 
			  Respond The nia Project London 
			  One in Four Solace Women's Aid 
			  — The Haven, Waltham Forest 
			    
			 Merseyside Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (Cheshire and Merseyside) Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (Cheshire and Merseyside) 
			  — Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral) 
			    
			 Norfolk — Sexual Violence Alliance 
			    
			 North Wales — Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre North Wales 
			  — Mid Wales RASASC (2012-15) 
			    
			 North Yorkshire — Survive 
			    
			 Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Rape and Incest Crisis Centre Northamptonshire Rape and Incest Crisis Centre 
			    
			 Northumbria Tyneside Rape Crisis Tyneside Rape Crisis 
			  — Grace Project—Northumberland Rape Crisis (2012-15) 
			  — SomeOne Cares 
			    
			 Nottinghamshire Incest and Sexual Abuse Survivors Incest and Sexual Abuse Survivors 
			  — Nottingham Rape Crisis Centre 
			    
			 South Wales New Pathways New Pathways 
			    
			 South Yorkshire Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service 
			  Sheffield Women's Counselling and Therapy Service Sheffield Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service 
			  — Barnsley Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Helpline 
			    
			 Staffordshire Sexual and Domestic Abuse and Rape Advice Centre SAVANA 
			  — Sexual and Domestic Abuse and Rape Advice Centre 
			    
			 Suffolk — Waveney Rape Crisis (2011-13) 
		
	
	
		
			  — Suffolk Rape Crisis (2012-15) 
			    
			 Surrey Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre Guildford Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre Guildford 
			    
			 Sussex Survivors Network Survivors Network 
			    
			 Thames Valley Rape Crisis (Wycombe, Chiltern and South Bucks) Rape Crisis (Wycombe, Chiltern and South Bucks) 
			  Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre Aylesbury Vale Rape Crisis 
			  — Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre 
			  — Reading Rape Support Centre (2013-16) 
			    
			 Warwickshire Rugby RoSA Rugby RoSA 
			  Safeline Warwick Safeline Warwick 
			    
			 West Mercia Worcestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Axis Counselling 
			  — Worcestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre 
			  — Herefordshire RASAC 
			    
			 West Midlands Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre 
			  Rape and Sexual Violence Project Birmingham Rape and Sexual Violence Project 
			  — Crisis Point 
			    
			 West Yorkshire Bradford Rape Crisis Bradford Rape Crisis Sexual Abuse Counselling Service 
			  — SARSVL Leeds Rape Crisis (2012-15) 
			  — Kirklees Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service 
			    
			 Wiltshire — Revival Wiltshire

Rape: Victim Support Schemes

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how much of the Government's funding for rape support centres has been spent in each region in each year since 2011;
	(2)  which domestic violence helplines received how much funding in each year since 2011;
	(3)  which rape support centres have received what funding in each year since 2011.

Damian Green: In 2011 the Ministry of Justice launched the Rape Support Fund (2011-14) which has provided nearly £4 million per year to support 77 rape support centres, including 13 new and emerging Rape Support Centres in areas of need, with a further two new centres planned for 2014-15. A breakdown of funding, per centre, area and year can be found in the following table.
	
		
			   Total annual award Total annual award Forecasted total annual award 
			 Area Grantee name 2011-12 (£) 2012-13 (£) 2013-14 (£) 
			 Avon and Somerset Bristol Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Bristol and NE Somerset Rape Crisis1 - - 137,895 
			 Bedfordshire Luton Hope Programme (Luton Rape Crisis) 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Cambridgeshire Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Peterborough Rape Crisis Care Group 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Cheshire RASASC Cheshire and Merseyside* 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Chester Sexual Violence Support Service 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Cleveland Arch North East (Women's Support Network) 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			 Cumbria The Birchall Trust* 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  West Cumbria Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Derbyshire Derbyshire Rape Crisis (SV2) 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			 Devon and Cornwall Twelve's Company 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Cornwall Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  WRASAC Cornwall 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Devon Rape Crisis1 115,000 100,217 66,000 
			 Dorset Dorset Rape Support Centre1 150,000 100,000 90,000 
			 Durham RSACC Darlington and Co. Durham 45,000 45,000 45,000 
		
	
	
		
			 Dyfyd Powys New Pathway* 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Mid Wales RASASC*1 - 146,500 100,000 
			 Essex SERICC 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Centre for Action on Rape AND Abuse (CARA) 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Southend on Sea Rape Crisis1 - 106,965 95,000 
			 Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Rape Crisis Centre 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Greater Manchester Manchester Rape Crisis 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Trafford Rape Crisis1 - 95,000 75,000 
			 Gwent New Pathways* 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Mid Wales RASASC*1 - 146,500 100,000 
			 Hampshire Southampton Rape Crisis 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Portsmouth Area Rape Crisis Service 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  RASAC Winchester 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Basingstoke RASACC 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Hertfordshire Watford Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Humberside Survivors (Hull and East Riding) 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Hull Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Kent Family Matters 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  East Kent Rape Line 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 Lancashire The Birchall Trust* 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Central Lancashire Rape Support Centre1 - - 149,350 
			 Leicestershire Jasmine House Leicester Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Lincolnshire Grimsby and Scunthorpe Rape Crisis 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Lincolnshire Rape Crisis1 - - 125,880 
			 London RASASC Croydon 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Women and Girls Network 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  The NIA Project 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Solace Women's Aid 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  The Haven-The Survivors' Network 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Merseyside RASA Centre Wirral 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  RASASC Cheshire and Merseyside* 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			 Norfolk Sexual Violence Alliance 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 North Wales RASASC North Wales 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Mid Wales RASASC*1 - 146,500 100,000 
			 North Yorkshire Survive (Survivors of Sexual Abuse N Yorks) 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Rape and Incest Crisis Centre 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Northumbria Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Someone Cares 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Grace Project-Northumberland Rape Crisis1 - 78,177 75,000 
			 Nottinghamshire Incest and Sexual Abuse Survivors 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Nottingham Rape Crisis Centre 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 South Wales New Pathways* 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			 South Yorkshire Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Barnsley SARCH 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Sheffield RASACS 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 Staffordshire Savana 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  SARAC Burton and District 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 Suffolk Waveney Rape and Abuse Centre2 30,000 30,000 0 
			  Suffolk Rape Crisis1 - 80,000 25,000 
			 Surrey RASASC Guildford 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 Sussex Survivors' Network 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 Thames Valley Rape Crisis (Wycombe, Chiltern and S Bucks) 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Aylesbury Vale Rape Crisis 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  OSARCC Oxford 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			  Reading Rape Support Centre1 - - 150,000 
		
	
	
		
			 Warwickshire Safeline 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Rugby RoSA 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 West Mercia Axis Counselling 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Worcestershire RASASC 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  Herefordshire RASAC1 135,000 95,000 80,000 
			 West Midlands CRASAC (Coventry) 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Birmingham RSVP 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Crisis Point 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			 West Yorkshire Bradford RC and SASS 60,000 60,000 60,000 
			  Kirklees RASACC 45,000 45,000 45,000 
			  SARSVL Leeds Rape Crisis1 - 120,084 95,000 
			 Wiltshire Revival Wiltshire 30,000 30,000 30,000 
			 * Centres that cover more than one area receive one payment per year for all areas combined. 1 The 13 new and emerging centres. 2 Waveney Rape and Abuse Centre closed in 2012-13. 
		
	
	The Government currently funds five national telephone helplines for victims of Domestic Violence. A breakdown can be found in the following table:
	
		
			 £ 
			  2011-12 2012-13 Forecasted 2013-14 
			 National Domestic Violence Helpline (operated by Women’s Aid/Refuge) 500,000 500,000 500,000 
			 Men’s Advice Helpline (operated by Respect) 120,000 120,000 120,000 
			 Perpetrator’s Helpline (operated by Respect) 120,000 120,000 120,000 
			 National LGBT Domestic Violence Helpline (operated by Broken Rainbow) 120,000 120,000 120,000 
			 Honour Network Helpline (operated by Karma Nirvana) 80,208 88,062 97,707

Young Offender Institutions: Crimes of Violence

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the prevalence of gang-related violence in youth offender institutions.

Jeremy Wright: The Government is addressing the issue of gang-related violence generally through the Ending Gangs and Youth Violence programme (EGYV). The current programme includes a focus on addressing levels of gang-associated violence in both under-18 young offender institutions (YOIs), and in YOIs for young adults. The latest annual report on the EGYV programme was published on 13 December 2013 and is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ending-gang-and-youth-violence-review-2012-to-2013
	Information held centrally on assaults does not separately identify gang-related incidents owing to difficulties both in defining these and in drawing connections between some incidents and gang-related factors.

Young Offenders: Rehabilitation

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to improve the transition of young offenders from custody back into mainstream society.

Jeremy Wright: I refer the hon. Member to my earlier answer of 5 November 2013 to question 173921 (HC Deb, 5 November 2013, Official Report, column 125W).